1986 FIFA World Cup™ Preliminary

Once again there was a new record number of entries, and fewer than ten withdrawals this time. From the four groups of five in Europe, the two top teams per group would qualify and among the prominent teams eliminated were Sweden, Czechoslovakia and Romania. From the remaining three groups of four, only the top team would qualify directly. Scotland were one of the runners-up in these groups and had to play off against the Oceania champions, Australia. A 2-0 win at Hampden Park and a no-score draw down under saw the Scots through. A further place in the final would go to the winner of the play-off between the other two runners-up in the groups of four. Once again this brought together Belgium and Holland, and in a great play-off battle it was the outstanding Belgian team of the 80s with Gerets, Scifo, Ceulemans and Vandenbergh that won through thanks to the away goals rule. Nine months later they would again impress in Mexico. England were the only team in the European zone to come through undefeated and their most noticeable triumph was an 8-0 win over Turkey in Istanbul.

The qualifying teams from South America included three previous World Cup winners: Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina. They all won their groups and qualified directly. Paraguay earned their place thanks to a clear home win over Chile in a play-off, their first success since 1958. The one open CONCACAF place (in addition to hosts Mexico) went deservedly to Canada, who were undefeated in all their eight matches.

In the Africa zone the format this time was a knock-out competition, with home and away matches. Morocco and Algeria won all their home matches and qualified, already having considerable World Cup experience behind them (as several other highly respected footballing countries would testify).

In Asia the qualifying teams for the semi-finals of their zone competition, in addition to Japan and Korea Republic, were, rather surprisingly, Iraq and Syria. Japan lost both matches against their neighbours, while Iraq earned a draw in Damascus and defeated the Syrians at home, securing their country a place in the World Cup final round for the first time. China's exit was almost tragic; despite four wins in six matches and a goal-line of 23-2 they suffered a totally unexpected home defeat against Hong Kong and lost the chance of playing Japan in the second round.

110 teams, 308 matches, 801 goals: the basic numbers were almost the same as four years before. Only in 1990 would the goal average be lower than in 1982 and 1986.

In true sporting spirit, Tunisia magnanimously agreed to reschedule their match against Benin for 13 November 1984, when the game had been due to be contested two days earlier. Benin’s flights had been delayed and Tunisia empathetically renounced their right to claim a 2-0 win by forfeit, choosing to play their African neighbours as planned. An inspired decision: Tunisia won 4-0.

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, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Soviet Union, Turkey, Wales, Yugoslavia

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

CONCACAF 18: Antigua, Barbados, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, USA

Africa 29: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Asia 27: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, China PR, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Kuwait, Lebanon (late entry), Macau, Malaysia, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Yemen (North), Yemen PDR (South), Syria, Thailand, United Arab Emirates

Number of Teams participating for the first time in the Preliminary Competition: 11

Angola, Bangladesh, Brunei, Jordan, Liberia, Nepal, Puerto Rico, Yemen, Yemen PDR, Uganda, United Arab

• Benin and Zimbabwe had both entered previous preliminary competitions under a different name: Benin (1974) as Dahomey, Zimbabwe (1970) as Rhodesia.

• 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 qualifiers without playing a match.

• The United Arab Emirates had entered the 1978 qualifiers, but withdrawn without playing a match.

• Czechoslovakia split up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. After the split, the politically separated countries still fielded a joint team, the RCS (Representation of Czechs and Slovaks), for the 1994 remaining qualifying matches. First entered separately as Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1998.

• Yugoslavia became Serbia and Montenegro in February 2003, and in 2006 the two became independent from each other

Preliminaries tournament statistics (without taking into account technical and annulled results)
Matches (neutral field)	308 (6)
Goals Scored	801
Host Goals Scored	512 (63,92%)
Guest Goals Scored	265 (33,08%)
Neutral Goals Scored	24 (3,00%)
Home win	162 (52,6%)
Draws	67 (21,75%)
Away win	73 (23,7%)
Goals Scored (average per match)	2,6
High score (more than 3 goals)	85 (27,6%)
No Score Draw	31 (10,06%)
Attendance (*incomplete data)	50 158 932
Average viewers per match (*incomplete data)	162 854
Penalties awarded (*incomplete data)	29
Penalty goals	29
% Successful Penalty kicks (*incomplete data)	100%
Own goals	12
Cautions (on average) (*incomplete data)	282 (0,92)
Sent off (aver.)	17 (0,06) - 16/1
Players participated (*incomplete data)	2282

Algeria, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, CANADA, DENMARK, England, France, Germany FR, Hungary, IRAQ, Italy (C), Korea Republic, Mexico (H), Morocco, Northern Ireland, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Soviet Union, Uruguay