1974 FIFA World Cup™ Preliminary

Africa 24: Algeria, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Dahomey, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Zaire, Zambia

Asia/Oceania 17 + 1: Australia, Ceylon, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Korea DPR (late entry), Korea Republic, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Vietnam, Syria, Thailand + Israel

CONCACAF 14: Antigua, Canada, Costa Rica, Dutch Guyana, EI Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, USA

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

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

Number of Teams participating for the first time in the Preliminary Competition: 23

Antigua, Ceylon, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Dahomey, Guinea, Hong Kong, Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Kuwait, Lesotho,

Remarks:
• The Soviet Union was disqualified for refusing to play the return leg of the play-off against Chile for political reasons.
• India withdrew in March of 1973 and the Philippines in April of 1973. Korea DPR was admitted in place of India in March of
1973, almost two years after the official closing date for application.
• Guinea and Senegal had already entered 1966 but withdrawn again without playing a match. Congo had entered 1966,
then still as the French Congo, but the entry was not accepted by FIFA. Nor were entries by Guinea and Zaire for 1970.
• Dahomey is now called Benin.
• Ceylon is now called Sri Lanka. Zaire changed its name to Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo DR) in 1997. Dutch Guyana
has been called Suriname since 1975.
• Nigeria dropped out of the competition when the association was dissolved after losing in the third round against Ghana.
• 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
and are now 2 separate member associations.

Argentina, AUSTRALIA, Brazil (C), Bulgaria, Chile, GERMAN DR, Germany FR (H),

HAITI, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, Sweden, Uruguay, Yugoslavia, ZAIRE

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

The impressive statistics for the 1974 World Cup preliminary round showed 99 entries and over 200 qualifying
matches for the first time, in the course of which a number of big name European teams were knocked out. The
decline of Hungary continued, this time in a group which included Austria, Malta and Sweden. The
Scandinavians were the team to come through after a hard-fought play-off against Austria in Gelsenkirchen.

England faced Poland in their final match at Wembley, and a draw for the visitors was enough for them to earn
qualification into the final round. The performance of Poland's goalkeeper Jan Tomaszweski has entered
football's book of legends. After a draw in their first play-off match against Chile, the Soviet Union refused to
travel to the Chilean capital for the return fixture for political reasons, and so, in accordance with the
regulations, Chile were awarded victory. The most closely-contested groups were those involving Belgium and
their neighbours and great rivals the Netherlands, plus the one with Spain and Yugoslavia. Both pairs of team
ended up equal on points so play-off matches were required, with Netherlands and Yugoslavia winning through.

In addition to Chile and defending champions Brazil, the representatives from South America were Argentina
and double World Champions Uruguay, who edged out Colombia on goal difference. In the North and Central
America zone, a sensation occurred: playing at home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti took full advantage of the moment
and of Mexico's weakness, the usual CONCACAF winners having played five matches against Trinidad and
Tobago, of which they lost one 4-0 and drew two others. A 1-0 win in the final match against the host country,
who until that moment had not dropped a point, was of no avail. In Africa, Zaire came through a marathon of
nearly fifty matches and qualified as the first sub-Saharan team for the World Cup final round. There was also a
premiere in the Asia/Oceania zone. Australia played two matches against both Iran and Korea Republic, coming
out on top and earning Oceania its first-ever appearance in the World Cup.

Facts & Figures FIFA World Cup™ 1974 Preliminary Competition
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Portugal and Northern Ireland made up group six. Quite who would qualify was far from
certain at the outset. What was certain, was that two of the four, Portugal and N. Ireland, boasted two of last
century’s most prized players, Eusebio and George Best. As fate would have it, the two only ever met in one
friendly, never in the qualifiers. Best returned after 10 months away from football to play a qualifier against
Portugal on 14 Nov 1973, at which point Eusebio was forced to bow out through injury.

World Champions eight years previously, England failed to qualify for the 1974 tournament. Their downfall
came when they underestimated the Poles at home. Faced with a home crowd of 105,000 in Katowice, they
eventually conceded a 2-0 defeat, and their pole position in group five, to Poland.
For the first time in the history of the FIFA World Cup preliminary competition the average number of goals
dropped below three.

Preliminaries tournament statistics (without taking into account technical and annulled results)
Matches (neutral field)	223 (39)
Goals Scored	614
Host Goals Scored	348 (56,68%)
Guest Goals Scored	170 (27,69%)
Neutral Goals Scored	96 (15,64%)
Home win	98 (43,95%)
Draws	47 (21,08%)
Away win	39 (17,49%)
Goals Scored (average per match)	2,75
High score (more than 3 goals)	69 (30,94%)
No Score Draw	23 (10,31%)
Attendance (*incomplete data)	5 656 394*
Average viewers per match (*incomplete data)	25 595*
Penalties awarded (*incomplete data)	34*
Penalty goals	34
% Successful Penalty kicks (*incomplete data)	100% *
Own goals	9
Cautions (on average)	116 (0,52)
Sent off (aver.)	12 (0,05) - 5/7
Players participated	1862