The 1966 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the five FIFA

confederations A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

. The 1966 FIFA World Cup featured 16 teams with one place reserved for the host nation,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and one reserved for defending champions

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. The remaining 14 places were determined by a qualification process in which the other 72 entered teams, from the five FIFA confederations, competed.

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 ...

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch language, Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CON ...

and CONMEBOL qualification was determined within the confederations, whilst AFC and CAF teams (alongside Australia) competed for one place at the tournament. Of these 72 teams, 51 competed, while Guatemala,

Congo-Brazzaville The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

and

the Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

had their entries rejected. In the Africa/Asia/Oceania zone: *

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

were disqualified after being suspended by FIFA due to

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. * All 15 African nations later withdrew in protest after FIFA, citing competitive and logistical issues, confirmed there would be no direct qualification for an African team, with Syria (who were grouped in Europe) withdrawing in support of the African teams. *

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

were later forced to withdraw due to logistical issues after the Asia/Oceania tournament was moved from Japan to Cambodia. The first qualification match, between

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

, was played on 24 May 1964 and the first goal in qualification was a penalty, scored by Dutch defender Daan Schrijvers. Qualification ended on 29 December 1965, when Bulgaria national football team, Bulgaria eliminated Belgium national football team, Belgium in a group tiebreaker to become the final qualifier for the World Cup. There were 393 goals scored over 127 games, for an average of 3.09 goals per game and 51 teams played in qualification.

Qualified teams

Qualification process

The 16 spots available in the 1966 World Cup were distributed among the continental zones as follows: * Europe (

): ''10 places'', 1 of them went to automatic qualifier

, while the other 9 places were contested by 32 teams (including Israel national football team, Israel and Syria). * South America ( CONMEBOL): ''4 places'', 1 of them went to automatic qualifier

, while the other 3 places were contested by 9 teams. * North, Central America and Caribbean (

): ''1 place'', contested by 10 teams. * Africa and Asia ( CAF/ AFC): ''1 place'', contested by 19 teams (including Australia national association football team, Australia from Oceania Football Confederation, Oceania). UEFA, CONMEBOL and CONCACAF had a guaranteed number of places, whereas the CAF and AFC had to contest a play-off to determine which confederation would be represented. After the first round of 1966 FIFA World Cup, 1966 FIFA World Cup finals, the percentage of teams from each confederation that passed through to the Quarter-finals was as follows: * AFC (Asia): 100% (1 of 1 places) * CAF (Africa): n/a (0 of 0 places) *

(North, Central American and Caribbean): 0% (0 of 1 places) * CONMEBOL (South America): 50% (2 of 4 places) * Oceania (No confederation): n/a (0 of 0 places) *

(Europe): 50% (5 of 10 places)

Summary of qualification

Tiebreakers

For FIFA World Cup qualifying stages using a round-robin tournament, league format, the method used for separating teams level on points was the same for all Confederations. If teams were even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams played a play-off at a neutral ground.

Confederation qualification

AFC, CAF and Oceania

21 teams – Australia, three teams from AFC and 17 teams from CAF – applied to take part in qualification, but the entries of

and

were rejected.

, who had been expelled from CAF in 1958 due to the country's apartheid policies, were placed with the Asian and Oceanian teams. Also, Australia national soccer team, Australia were not a member of a confederation at the time (the Oceania Football Confederation, OFC was not founded until 1966). The qualification process began with four national teams split between two sections for qualification: Israel national football team, Israel and Syria competed in European qualification for geographical reasons, whilst North Korea national football team, North Korea and

were to take part in a group alongside Australia national soccer team, Australia and

. The winner of this group would then go on to play the three group winners from the second round of CAF qualifiers. However, South Africa was disqualified after being suspended by FIFA, and all 15 members of CAF withdrew in protest after FIFA declined to allocate them a direct qualifying place. Less than three weeks before the tournament, South Korea were forced to withdraw due to logistical difficulties after the tournament was moved from Japan to Cambodia.

African boycott

Qualification for the 15 remaining African teams saw them sorted into six groups: three groups of two and three groups of three. The winners of these groups were then to play a two-legged tie in the following combinations: Group 1 winners v Group 5 winners, Group 2 winners v Group 4 winners and Group 3 winners v Group 6 winners, with the winners advancing to play in the final group with each other and the winner of the Asia/Oceania group. However, these African nations were aggrieved that their second-round winners would be required to enter a final round against the winners of the Asia/Oceania group in order to qualify for the final tournament. These nations demanded that Africa be represented in the tournament, and also objected to the readmission of

to FIFA. Due to pressure from the African nations and CAF, South Africa was suspended again on 21 September 1964, and were subsequently disqualified. However, after FIFA declined to change the qualifying format or the allocation of places, citing competitive and logistical issues, all fifteen African teams immediately withdrew in protest: subsequently, CAF informed FIFA that they would refuse to participate in qualifying for 1970 FIFA World Cup, 1970 unless at least one African team had an automatic place in the World Cup. In 1968, FIFA unanimously voted to grant an automatic place for CAF from the 1970 World Cup onwards.

CONCACAF

10 teams initially entered, but the entry of Guatemala was rejected. The remaining nine teams were placed in to three groups of three, with the winner of each group proceeding to a final group. The winner of this group would go on to the final tournament.

CONMEBOL

has already qualified as reigning champions, the remaining nine CONMEBOL teams were split in to three groups of 3, playing each other twice (home and away). The top team from each group qualified.

Final positions (Group Stage)

In Group B, Chile and Ecuador finished level on points, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would qualify. Chile won the match to win the group.

UEFA

qualified automatically as hosts and a further 30 European teams took part in qualification. They were joined by Israel national football team, Israel and Syria, although Syria then withdrew in support of the African teams. The teams were divided into 9 groups - four groups of 3 and five groups of 4. Syria's withdrawal meant that group 9 only contained two teams.

Final positions (Group Stage)

In Group 1, Belgium and Bulgaria finished level on points, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would qualify. Bulgaria won the match 2–1. In Group 9, the Republic of Ireland and Spain finished level on points, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would qualify. Spain won the match 1–0.

Goalscorers

;7 goals * Eusébio ;6 goals * Mimis Papaioannou ;5 goals * Paul Van Himst * Georgi Asparuhov * Sandro Mazzola * Isidoro Díaz * Jobby Crossan * Włodzimierz Lubański * Anatoliy Banishevskiy * Héctor Silva (Uruguayan footballer), Héctor Silva ;4 goals * Nikola Kotkov * Errol Daniels * Leonel Hernández * František Knebort * Ernesto Cisneros * Pedro Rocha (Uruguayan footballer), Pedro Virgilio Rocha * Roy Vernon * Milan Galić ;3 goals * Luis Artime * Ermindo Onega * Johnny Thio * Alberto Fouilloux * Leonel Sánchez * Edgar Marín * William Quirós * Karol Jokl * Enrique Raymondi * Juhani Peltonen * Nestor Combin * Philippe Gondet * Giorgos Sideris * Paolo Barison * Lascelles Dunkley * Louis Pilot * Pak Seung-Zin * Pedro Pablo León * Jerzy Sadek * Valentin Kozmich Ivanov * Slava Metreveli * Chus Pereda * Siegfried Haltman * Köbi Kuhn * Ivor Allchurch * Rudolf Brunnenmeier ;2 goals * Raúl Bernao * Les Scheinflug * Carlos Campos Sánchez * Rubén Marcos * Eugenio Méndez * Ignacio Prieto * Antonio Rada * Hermenegildo Segrera * Ivan Mráz * Ole Fritsen * Ole Madsen * Peter Ducke * Jürgen Nöldner * Alberto Pedro Spencer * János Farkas * Máté Fenyvesi * Giacinto Facchetti * Bruno Mora * Gianni Rivera * José Luis González Dávila * Javier Fragoso * Aarón Padilla Gutiérrez * Salvador Reyes Monteón * Hennie van Nee * Virgilio Sille * Han Bong-Zin * Kim Seung-Il (footballer), Kim Seung-Il * George Best * Harald Berg * Erik Johansen (footballer), Erik Johansen * Luis Zavalla * Ernest Pol * Nicolae Georgescu * Viorel Mateianu * John Greig * Denis Law * Vladimir Barkaya * Stanley Humbert Krenten * Edmund Waterval * Lars Granström * Bo Larsson * Agne Simonsson * Torbjörn Jonsson * René-Pierre Quentin * Andy Aleong * Fevzi Zemzem * Ed Murphy (soccer), Ed Murphy * Werner Krämer * Wolfgang Overath * Klaus-Dieter Sieloff * Dragan Džajić ;1 goal * Mexhit Haxhiu * Robert Jashari * Erich Hof * Armand Jurion * Wilfried Puis * Jacques Stockman * Fortunato Castillo * Ramón Quevedo * Rolando Vargas (footballer), Rolando Vargas * Stoyan Kitov * Ivan Petkov Kolev * Fernando Jiménez (footballer), Fernando Jiménez * Tarcisio Rodríguez Viquez * Juan González Soto * Nicolás Martínez (Cuban footballer), Nicolás Martínez * Ángel Piedra * Antonio dos Santos (Cuban footballer), Antonio dos Santos * Alexander Horváth * Dušan Kabát * Andrej Kvašňák * Mogens Berg * Kaj Poulsen * Tommy Troelsen * Eberhard Vogel * Romulo Gómez * Washington Muñoz * Martti Hyvärinen * Semi Nuoranen * Marcel Artelesa * André Guy * Angel Rambert * Andreas Papaemmanouil * José Ricardo Taylor * Ferenc Bene * Kálmán Mészöly * Dezső Novák * Gyula Rákosi * Andy McEvoy * Rahamim Talbi * Giacomo Bulgarelli * Ezio Pascutti * Syd Bartlett * Oscar Black * Patrick Blair (footballer), Patrick Blair * Art Welch * Asher Welch * Ernest Brenner * Edy Dublin * Ady Schmit * José Luis Aussin * Ignacio Jáuregui * Ramiro Navarro * Frans Geurtsen * Theo Laseroms * Bennie Muller * Daan Schrijvers * Im Seung-Hwi * Pak Doo-Ik * Willie Irvine * Terry Neill * Per Kristoffersen * Olav Nilsen * Arne Pedersen * Finn Seemann * Kai Sjøberg * Ole Stavrum * Celino Mora * Vicente Rodríguez (Paraguayan footballer), Vicente Rodríguez * Juan Carlos Rojas (Parauguayan footballer), Juan Carlos Rojas * Nemesio Mosquera * Jesús Peláez Miranda * Víctor Zegarra * Roman Lentner * Mário Coluna * Jaime Graça * Sorin Avram * Alexandru Badea * Dan Coe * Carol Creiniceanu * Ion Pârcălab * Stevie Chalmers * Dave Gibson (Scottish footballer), Dave Gibson * Billy McNeill * Davie Wilson * Boris Kazakov * Galimzyan Khusainov * Mikheil Meskhi * Yozhef Sabo * Valery Voronin * Carlos Lapetra * José Ufarte * Kenneth Kluivert * Kurt Hamrin * Ove Kindvall * Anton Allemann * Robert Hosp * Alvin Corneal * Jeff Gellineau * Bobby Sookram * Ayhan Elmastaşoğlu * Nedim Doğan * Helmut Bicek * Walt Schmotolocha * Danilo Menezes * José Urruzmendi * Freddy Elie * Rafael Santana (footballer), Rafael Santana * Humberto Francisco Scovino * Argenis Tortolero * Ron Davies (footballer, born 1942), Ron Davies * Wyn Davies * Mike England * Ronnie Rees * Alfred Heiß * Uwe Seeler * Heinz Strehl * Horst Szymaniak * Dražan Jerković * Vladica Kovačević * Džemaludin Mušović * Velibor Vasović ;1 own goal * José Ramos Delgado (playing against Bolivia national football team, Bolivia) * Ivan Vutsov (playing against Belgium national football team, Belgium) * Kostas Panayiotou (playing against West Germany national football team, West Germany) * Stig Holmqvist (playing against Italy national football team, Italy) * Ricardo González (Paraguayan footballer), Ricardo González (playing against Argentina national football team, Argentina) * José Ángel Iribar (playing against Republic of Ireland national football team, Ireland) * Graham Williams (footballer, born 1938), Graham Williams (playing against the Soviet Union national football team, Soviet Union)

References

External links

RSSSF - 1966 World Cup Qualification
{{DEFAULTSORT:1966 Fifa World Cup Qualification 1966 FIFA World Cup qualification, 1966 FIFA World Cup, Qualification FIFA World Cup qualification