1990 FIFA World Cup™ Preliminary

(teams of ITALY, as the host nation and ARGENTINA, as the current world champion, are exempt from the qualifying games.)

ITALIA 90 also attracted well over a hundred entries for the preliminary round, although the total was slightly down on last time. The first qualifying match was in the Caribbean as usual, where Trinidad and Tobago defeated Guyana 4-0 on 17 April 1988. By an odd coincidence it would also be Trinidad and Tobago who would play the last game in the preliminary round twenty months later. With a World Cup place within their reach, the island team lost against the USA in Port of Spain. The only goal of the match was scored by Paul Caligiuri and it earned the USA their first World Cup appearance for 40 years. Costa Rica (under coach Bora Milutinovic) won the other CONCACAF place (with Mexico being banned from taking part).

An unpleasant episode marred the South American preliminaries; during the match between Brazil and Chile a firework landed close to the Chilean goalkeeper Rojas who then feigned injury. His team refused to continue the match - they were a goal down at the time. But the scheme was quickly seen through, and the result was a long suspension for those involved and a ban for Chile from the World Cup 1994. In addition to Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia (for the first time since 1962) completed the South American contingent. Colombia had won through via a play-off against Israel, which produced just one goal in the two matches, Israel having come out on top in a group with the Oceania representatives Australia and New Zealand.

Europe`s breakdown this time was into four groups with five teams and three groups with four; basically the top two teams in each group would qualify, with the exception of the poorest second team from the groups of four. A defeat in their last match against Romania put Denmark in this unfortunate position, and so the tournament was deprived of one of the most attractive sides of the 1986 competition. England and Germany FR both ended up second in their groups and that was enough. There were few other surprises, except for the case of France, for whom a 1-1 against Cyprus in Nicosia on 22 October 1988 came back to haunt them and saw Scotland a point ahead in the final ranking.

The usual long, drawn-out African qualifiers saw Egypt qualify for the first time since 1934, as well as Cameroon (who had been undefeated in 1982 in Spain). In an evenly matched battle between six teams in the final round in Asia Korea Republic and UAE both emerged undefeated, with the Arabs` record of one win and four draws being enough to get them through.

The United Arab Emirates secured their berth in the final competition with four draws, one win and only four goals (two of them in their 2-1 win over China PR) in five matches in the Asian Final round.

Unfortunately, the enduring image of several qualifiers in the late 80s marred the image of football, distorting what the game is really about. After the Netherlands vs Germany FR match, just 11 short days after the tragedy in Hillsborough, Dutch riot police had to intervene in the streets of Rotterdam; similar scenes ensued when Chile met Brazil in Santiago in August of that year.

Europe 33: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, German DR, Germany FR, England, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland Republic, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Wales, Yugoslavia.

South America 10: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela.

CONCACAF 16: Antigua, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, EI Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, USA

Africa 26: Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d`Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Asia 26: Bahrain, Bangladesh, China PR, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Kuwait, Malaysia, Maldives Republic, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Yemen (North), Yemen DPR (South), Syria, Thailand, United Arab Emirates

Number of Teams participating for the first time in the Preliminary Competition: 3

• Gabon and Oman had entered previous qualifiers, but withdrawn again without playing a match: Gabon 1966 and 1974, Oman 1986. Burkina Faso had already played in the 1978 qualifiers, then still under the name Upper Volta.

• As a result of a two-year FIFA ban imposed for falsifying age at a youth championship, Mexico was also suspended from the 1990 World Cup preliminary competition.

• India had already entered 1950, 1954 and 1974, but never played a match. They qualified for the World Cup in 1950 by default (opponents withdrew), but declined to attend. The entry for 1954 was not accepted by FIFA, and India withdrew from the 1974 and 1990 qualifiers without playing a match.

• Yugoslavia became Serbia and Montenegro in February 2003, and in 2006 the two became independent from each other and are now 2 separate member associations.

Austria, Argentina, (C), Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, COSTA RICA, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, England, Germany, FR, , REPUBLIC of IRELAND, Italy, (H), Korea Republic, Netherlands, Romania, Scotland, Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, Uruguay, United States, Yugoslavia

Legend
NEWCOMERS TO FINALS in upper case italics
(C) Defending champions, qualified automatically

Preliminaries tournament statistics (without taking into account technical and annulled results)
Matches (neutral field)	312 (27)
Goals Scored	732
Host Goals Scored	452 (61,75%)
Guest Goals Scored	223 (30,46%)
Neutral Goals Scored	57 (7,79%)
Home win	158 (50,64%)
Draws	72 (23,08%)
Away win	55 (17,63%)
Goals Scored (average per match)	2,35
High score (more than 3 goals)	65 (20,83%)
No Score Draw	39 (12,5%)
Attendance (*incomplete data)	433 400
Average viewers per match (*incomplete data)	54 175
Penalties awarded (*incomplete data)	37
Penalty goals	37
% Successful Penalty kicks (*incomplete data)	100%
Own goals	12
Cautions (on average) (*incomplete data)	0 (0)
Sent off (aver.)	0 (0) - 0/0
Players participated (*incomplete data)	459