A total of 55 teams entered the 1958 FIFA World Cup

qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

rounds, competing for a total of 16 spots in the final tournament. Sweden as the hosts and

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots open for competition.

Qualification Process

The qualification rounds for the four previous World Cups differed widely, with controversial rules and many withdrawals. From this tournament onwards, FIFA divided the teams into several continental zones, assigned a pre-determined number of places in the final tournament to each zone, and delegated the organisation of the qualifying tournaments to its confederations:

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

of Europe, CONMEBOL of South America, NAFC of North America, CCCF of Central America and Caribbean, CAF of Africa and AFC of Asia (and OFC of Oceania after it was formed later). The 16 spots available in the 1958 World Cup would be distributed among the continental zones as follows: *Europe (

): ''11 places'', 2 of them went to automatic qualifiers Sweden and

, while the other 9 places were contested by 27 teams. *South America ( CONMEBOL): ''3 places'', contested by 9 teams. *North, Central America and Caribbean ( NAFC/ CCCF): ''1 place'', contested by 6 teams. *Africa ( CAF) and Asia ( AFC): ''1 place'', contested by 11 teams (including

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

). However, FIFA also imposed a rule that no team would qualify without playing at least one match because many teams qualified for previous World Cups without playing due to withdrawals of their opponents. Because

won the African and Asian zone under this circumstance, FIFA required them to enter a play-off against a team from Europe who initially did not qualify, with the winner of this play-off qualifying. Therefore, effectively in the end, a total of ''11.5 places'' were granted to Europe while only ''0.5 places'' were granted to Africa and Asia. A total of 46 teams played at least one qualifying match. A total of 89 qualifying matches were played, and 341 goals were scored (an average of 3.83 per match). Listed below are the dates and results of the qualification rounds.

Confederation qualification

AFC and CAF

CCCF and NAFC

The 6 teams were divided into 2 groups with 3 teams each (Group 1 with teams from North America and Group 2 with teams from Central America and Caribbean). The teams played each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners advanced to the Final Round. The two teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis with the winner qualifying for the final tournament.

CONMEBOL

The 9 teams were divided into 3 groups of 3 teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify.

UEFA

The 27 teams were divided into 9 groups, each featuring 3 teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify. Denmark, East Germany, Iceland and the Soviet Union made their debuts in World Cup qualification.

Inter-confederation play-offs: AFC/CAF v UEFA

A special play-off was created between Israel and the runner-up of one of the UEFA/CONMEBOL/CCCF/NAFC Groups, where the teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis, with the winner qualifying. Two-time champions Uruguay withdrew, while Northern Ireland and Italy had one final match yet to play, so all three were left out. Belgium, Bulgaria, Wales, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Peru, Bolivia and Costa Rica were left to draw. After

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

refused,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, the runner-up of UEFA Group 4, was the team drawn from the UEFA group runners-up.

Qualified teams

Goalscorers

;8 goals *

Tommy Taylor Thomas Taylor (29 January 1932 – 6 February 1958) was an English footballer, who was known for his aerial ability. He was one of the eight Manchester United players who died in the Munich air disaster. Career Taylor was born in Smithies, ...

;7 goals *

Thadée Cisowski Thadée Cisowski (16 February 1927 – 24 February 2005), originally Tadeusz Cisowski, was a French former footballer who played as a striker. A son of Polish immigrants, he was one of the best goalscorers in Championnat de France. In the Worl ...

;5 goals * Crescencio Gutiérrez * Jackie Mudie ;4 goals * Paul Vandenberg * Tadeusz Kraus * John Atyeo * Ferenc Machos * Rusli Ramang * Edward Jankowski * Nikita Simonyan * Ladislao Kubala ;3 goals * Omar Oreste Corbatta * Norberto Menéndez * Gerhard Hanappi * Maurice Willems * Máximo Alcócer * Hristo Iliev (footballer), Hristo Iliev * Jorge Hernán Monge * Rodolfo Herrera González * Álvaro Murillo * Jean Vincent * Dermot Curtis * Alfredo Hernández (footballer, born 1935), Alfredo Hernández * Héctor Hernández (footballer, born 1935), Héctor Hernández * Salvador Reyes Monteón * Abe Lenstra * Noud van Melis * Jimmy McIlroy * Juan Bautista Agüero * Florencio Amarilla * Anatoli Ilyin * Eduard Streltsov * Des Palmer * Muhamed Mujić ;2 goals * Roberto Zárate * Hans Buzek * Theodor Wagner * Henri Coppens * Victor Mees * Richard Orlans * Georgi Dimitrov (footballer, born 1931), Georgi Dimitrov * Panayot Panayotov (footballer), Panayot Panayotov * Art Hughes (Canadian soccer), Art Hughes * Brian Philley * Gogie Stewart * Jaime Ramírez (footballer, born 1931), Jaime Ramírez * Mario Cordero * Rubén Jiménez Rodríguez * Danilo Montero Campos * Wilfred de Lanoy * Ove Bech Nielsen * Günther Wirth * Duncan Edwards * Célestin Oliver * Roger Piantoni * Joseph Ujlaki * Francisco López Contreras * Lajos Csordás * Nándor Hidegkuti * Ríkharður Jónsson * Þórður Jónsson (footballer, born 1934), Þórður Jónsson * Þórður Þórðarson (footballer, born 1930), Þórður Þórðarson * Guido Gratton * Carlos González (footballer, born 1935), Carlos González * Héctor Hernández (footballer, born 1935), Héctor Hernández * Ligorio López * Enrique Sesma * Cor van der Gijp * Harald Hennum * Ángel Jara Saguier * Enrique Jara Saguier * Lucjan Brychczy * Gerard Cieślik * Manuel Vasques * Alexandru Ene * Anatoli Isayev * Igor Netto * Estanislao Basora * Alfredo di Stéfano * Luis Suárez Miramontes * Josef Hügi * Roger Vonlanthen * Ed Murphy (soccer), Ed Murphy * Ivor Allchurch * Cliff Jones (Welsh footballer), Cliff Jones * Miloš Milutinović ;1 goal * Norberto Conde * Eliseo Prado * Robert Dienst * Walter Haummer * Karl Koller (footballer), Karl Koller * Ernst Kozlicek * Helmut Senekowitsch * Karl Stotz * Otto Walzhofer * André Van Herpe * Denis Houf * André Piters * Ricardo Alcón * Ausberto García * Didi (footballer, born 1928), Didi * Índio (footballer, born 1931), Índio * Spiro Debarski * Todor Diev * Ivan Petkov Kolev * Krum Yanev * Norm McLeod (soccer), Norm McLeod * Ostap Steckiw * Guillermo Díaz (footballer, born 1930), Guillermo Díaz * Nian Weisi * Sun Fucheng * Wang Lu (footballer), Wang Lu * Zhang Honggen * Carlos Arango * Ricardo Díaz (footballer), Ricardo Díaz * Jaime Gutiérrez * Juan Soto Quiros * Edgard Meulens * Hubert Sambo * Vlastimil Bubník * Pavol Molnár * Anton Moravčík * Ladislav Novák * Aage Rou Jensen * John Jensen (footballer, born 1937), John Jensen * Manfred Kaiser * Helmut Müller * Willy Tröger * Johnny Haynes * Olavi Lahtinen * Mauri Vanhanen * Said Brahimi * René Dereuddre * Maryan Wisnieski * Kostas Nestoridis * Vaggelis Panakis * Augusto Espinoza * Jorge Vickers * József Bozsik * Károly Sándor * Lajos Tichy * Eddang Witarsa * George Cummins (footballer), George Cummins * Johnny Gavin (footballer), Johnny Gavin * Alf Ringstead * Sergio Cervato * Dino da Costa * Gino Pivatelli * Jean-Pierre Fiedler * Johnny Halsdorf * Léon Letsch * Jaime Belmonte * Toon Brusselers * Coen Dillen * Kees Rijvers * Servaas Wilkes * Billy Bingham * Tommy Casey * Wilbur Cush * Billy Simpson (footballer, born 1929), Billy Simpson * Kjell Kristiansen * Óscar Aguilera * Alberto Terry * Ginter Gawlik * Matateu * António Dias Teixeira * Cornel Cacoveanu * Titus Ozon * Iosif Petschovsky * Nicolae Tǎtaru * John Hewie * Tommy Ring * Archie Robertson (footballer), Archie Robertson * Alex Scott (footballer, born 1937), Alex Scott * Gordon Smith (footballer, born 1924), Gordon Smith * Genrich Fedosov * Valentin Kozmich Ivanov * Boris Tatushin * Yuri Voinov * Miguel González (Spanish footballer), Miguel González * Enrique Mateos * Suleiman Faris * Siddiq Manzul * Robert Ballaman * Ferdinando Riva * Jabra Al-Zarqa * Harry Keough * Ruben Mendoza * James Murphy (soccer, born 1936), James Murphy * Javier Ambrois * Eladio Benítez * William Martínez (footballer), William Martínez * Óscar Míguez * Dave Bowen * Mel Charles * Roy Vernon * Dobrosav Krstić * Aleksandar Petaković ;1 own goal * Edgar Falch (playing against Hungary national football team, Hungary) * Ray Daniel (Welsh footballer), Ray Daniel (playing against Czechoslovakia national football team, Czechoslovakia)

Notes

*Wales is the only team to ever qualify after having been eliminated and then reinstated. Their qualification meant that all four Home Nations qualified (the only time in history), and that no team from the separate African and Asian zone qualified. This remained Wales' only appearance in the finals until 2022, when they qualified through the European zone for the first time. *Two-time former champions Uruguay, who in their three previous appearances had always benefited from direct qualifications or withdrawals, now failed in what was the first time they actually had to play qualifying games. *Italy were eliminated in qualifying for the first time.

Footnotes

External links

FIFA World Cup Official Site - 1958 World Cup Qualification
{{DEFAULTSORT:1958 Fifa World Cup Qualification 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification, 1958 FIFA World Cup, Qualification FIFA World Cup qualification 1956 in association football, World Cup 1957 in association football, World