A total of 109 teams entered the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy, who defeated West Germany 3–1 ...

qualification rounds, which began with the preliminary qualification draw on 14 October 1979 at

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Z ...

, competing for a total of 24 spots in the final tournament, an increase from 16 in the previous World Cups.

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

, as the hosts, and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 22 spots open for competition. The 24 spots available in the 1982 World Cup would be distributed among the continental zones as follows: *

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

(

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 fo ...

): ''14 places'', one to automatic qualifier

, while the other 13 places were contested by 33 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 ...

). *

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

( CONMEBOL): ''4 places'', one to automatic qualifier

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

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 uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; types ...

): ''2 places'', contested by 15 teams. *

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

( CAF): ''2 places'', contested by 29 teams. * Asia and Oceania (

AFC AFC may stand for: Organizations * Action for Children, a UK children's charity * AFC Enterprises, the franchisor of Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits * Africa Finance Corporation, a pan-African multilateral development finance institution * A ...

and OFC): ''2 places'', contested by 21 teams. A total of 103 teams played at least one qualifying match. A total of 306 qualifying matches were played, and 797 goals were scored (an average of 2.60 per match).

Qualified teams

The following 24 teams qualified for the

Confederation qualification

AFC and OFC

:Kuwait and New Zealand qualified.

CAF

:Algeria and Cameroon qualified.

CONCACAF

:Honduras and El Salvador qualified.

CONMEBOL

:Group 1 - Brazil qualified. :Group 2 - Peru qualified. :Group 3 - Chile qualified.

UEFA

:Group 1 - West Germany and Austria qualified. :Group 2 - Belgium and France qualified. :Group 3 - USSR and Czechoslovakia qualified. :Group 4 - Hungary and England qualified. :Group 5 - Yugoslavia and Italy qualified. :Group 6 - Scotland and Northern Ireland qualified. :Group 7 - Poland qualified.

Top goalscorers

;9 goals * Gary Cole *

Steve Sumner Steven Paul Sumner (2 April 1955 – 8 February 2017) was an English-born, New Zealand football player, who was captain of the national team during the country's first successful campaign to qualify for the World Cup, in 1982. Club career Sum ...

* Brian Turner * Karl-Heinz Rummenigge ;8 goals * Grant Turner *

Steve Wooddin Stephen Wooddin (born 16 January 1955 in England) is a former New Zealand association football player who was a leading striker during the country's successful campaign to qualify for the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain. He was a left-footed att ...

;7 goals *

Hugo Sánchez Hugo Sánchez Márquez (born 11 July 1958) is a Mexican former professional footballer and manager, who played as a forward. A prolific goalscorer known for his spectacular strikes and volleys, he is widely regarded as the greatest Mexican ...

Klaus Fischer Klaus Fischer (born 27 December 1949) is a German former professional footballer and coach. He was a key player on the West Germany national team that lost the 1982 World Cup final to Italy. As a forward, he was noted for his bicycle kicks, an ...

Zlatko Vujović Zlatko Vujović (; born 26 August 1958) is a Croatian retired footballer who played as a striker. His twin brother, Zoran, was also a professional footballer. They were both Yugoslav internationals, and both spent a large part of their profe ...

;6 goals * Roger Milla *

Frank Arnesen Frank Arnesen (born 30 September 1956) is a former Danish footballer and sporting director at Dutch football club Feyenoord. Arnesen was the Director of Football at English football clubs Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, and was Sporting Director ...

Notes

* The away goals rule was used for the first time as a tie-breaker for two-legged ties.

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesSomalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constitut ...

and

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

. * With the expansion of the final tournament, this marked the first time two teams from Africa and Asia qualified. *

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

set numerous records on their first successful campaign. They played 15 qualifying matches and travelled 55,000 miles during qualification. Their 13–0 score against

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consis ...

set a World Cup record as did

's six goals in that match. Also during qualifying goalkeeper Richard Wilson went a world cup record 921 minutes without conceding a goal.

External links

FIFA World Cup Official Site - 1982 World Cup Qualification

{{1980 in Japanese football Qualification FIFA World Cup qualification