1990 FIFA World Cup qualification

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1990 FIFA World Cup Qualification
Tournament details
Teams116 (from 6 confederations)
Tournament statistics
Matches played314
Goals scored735 (2.34 per match)
Top scorer(s) Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Marc Van Der Linden
Flag of South Korea.svg Hwang Sun-hong
(7 goals each)
1986
1994

The 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 1990 FIFA World Cup featured 24 teams with one place reserved for the host nation, Italy, and one place for the defending champions, Argentina. The remaining 22 places were determined by a qualification process, in which 116 teams, from the six FIFA confederations, competed. Most of the successful teams were determined within these confederations, with a limited number of inter-confederation play-offs occurring at the end of the process.

Contents

The first qualification match was played on 17 April 1988 and qualification concluded on 19 November 1989. A total of 735 goals were scored in the 314 qualifying matches (an average of 2.34 per match).

Entrants

At the close of entries on 30 September 1987, a total of 116 football associations had entered the 1990 World Cup. This entry figure was five lower than those who originally entered the previous tournament, a then-World Cup record of 121 entries.

Three entries were rejected by FIFA: Belize, Mauritius and Mozambique due to their outstanding financial debts, taking the number of accepted teams down to 113. With both the hosts and holders qualifying automatically for the finals, 111 nations were therefore scheduled to compete in the qualifying competitions. Gabon, Oman and Pakistan were making their first appearance in the World Cup.

Seven teams withdrew during the qualifying process without playing a match: Bahrain, India, Lesotho, Maldives, Rwanda, South Yemen and Togo. Mexico were disqualified from the CONCACAF qualifying tournament before playing a game for fielding overage players in the qualifying stages for the 1988 Olympic Games. Libya withdrew during the CAF group stage, but had already (successfully) played in the first round. Therefore, the total number of teams playing at least one fixture during the 1990 World Cup competition was 105 (103 during qualifying).

Qualified teams

Final qualification status
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Country qualified for World Cup
Country failed to qualify
Country did not enter World Cup
Country not a FIFA member 1990 world cup qualification.png
Final qualification status
  Country qualified for World Cup
  Country failed to qualify
  Country did not enter World Cup
  Country not a FIFA member

[1]

The following 24 teams qualified for the 1990 FIFA World Cup:

TeamMethod of

qualification

Date of

qualification

Finals

appearance

StreakPrevious best

performance

Flag of Argentina.svg  Argentina Defending champions29 June 198610th5Winners (1978, 1986)
Flag of Austria.svg  Austria UEFA group 3 runners-up15 November 19896th1(last: 1982)Third place (1954)
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium UEFA group 7 winners25 October 19898th3Fourth place (1986)
Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg  Brazil CONMEBOL group 3 winners10 September 198914th14Winners (1958, 1962, 1970)
Flag of Cameroon.svg  Cameroon CAF final round winners19 November 19892nd1(last: 1982)Group stage (1982)
Flag of Colombia.svg  Colombia CONMEBOL v OFC play-off winners30 October 19892nd1(last: 1962)Group stage (1962)
Flag of Costa Rica.svg  Costa Rica CONCACAF Championship winners16 July 19891st1
Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czechoslovakia UEFA group 7 runners-up15 November 19898th1(last: 1982)Runners-up (1934, 1962)
Flag of Egypt.svg  Egypt CAF final round winners17 November 19892nd1(last: 1934)First round (1934)
Flag of England.svg  England UEFA group 2 runners-up11 October 19899th3Winners (1966)
Flag of Italy.svg  Italy Hosts19 May 198412th8Winners (1934, 1938, 1982)
Flag of South Korea (1984-1997).svg  South Korea AFC final round winners25 October 19893rd2Group stage (1954, 1986)
Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands UEFA group 4 winners15 November 19895th1(last: 1978)Runners-up (1974, 1978)
Flag of Ireland.svg  Republic of Ireland UEFA group 6 runners-up15 November 19891st1
Flag of Romania.svg  Romania UEFA group 1 winners15 November 19895th1(last: 1970)Group stage (1930, 1934, 1938, 1970)
Flag of Scotland.svg  Scotland UEFA group 5 runners-up15 November 19897th5Group stage (1954, 1958, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986)
Flag of Spain.svg  Spain UEFA group 6 winners11 October 19898th4Fourth place (1950)
Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden UEFA group 2 winners25 October 19898th1(last: 1978)Runners-up (1958)
Flag of the United Arab Emirates.svg  United Arab Emirates AFC final round runners-up28 October 19891st1
Flag of the United States.svg  United States CONCACAF Championship runners-up19 November 19894th1(last: 1950)Third place (1930)
Flag of Uruguay.svg  Uruguay CONMEBOL group 2 winners24 September 19899th2Winners (1930, 1950)
Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union UEFA group 3 winners15 November 19897th3Fourth place (1966)
Flag of Germany.svg  West Germany UEFA group 4 runners-up15 November 198912th10Winners (1954, 1974)
Flag of Yugoslavia (1946-1992).svg  Yugoslavia UEFA group 5 winners11 October 19898th1(last: 1982)Fourth place (1930, 1962)

Confederation qualification

AFC

Qualification for AFC teams consisted of two rounds. Round one saw the teams divided into 6 groups, each team playing the others in their group twice. The winner of each group then went into a final group where they played each other once.

The qualification process began with 25 national teams vying for two spots. Korea Republic and United Arab Emirates qualified.

Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 1990 World Cup

Final positions (final round)

RankTeamPldPts
1Flag of South Korea (1984-1997).svg  South Korea 58
2Flag of the United Arab Emirates.svg  United Arab Emirates 56
3Flag of Qatar.svg  Qatar 55
4Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 54
5Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg  Saudi Arabia 54
6Flag of North Korea.svg  North Korea 53

CAF

Rwanda and Togo both withdrew. The remaining teams played playoff games on a home and away basis. The Winners advance to the group stage. Group stage, the 16 teams are divided into 4 groups of 4 teams. The winners advance to the final round. Final round, the 4 teams play playoff games on a home and away basis, the winners would qualify.

Egypt and Cameroon qualified.

CONCACAF

Qualification took place over three rounds, with the first two rounds being qualification for the CONCACAF Championship. In the first round, ten teams played in a two leg match with the five winners qualifying for the second round where they joined Canada, Honduras, El Salvador, United States and Mexico. Before the games, Mexico was disqualified for fielding over-age players at the 1988 CONCACAF U-20 Tournament which allowed Costa Rica a walkover. [2] The remaining eight teams played playoff games against each other with the winners advancing to the final round.

In the final round, the five teams would played each other on a home and away basis with the top two teams qualifying for the World Cup.

Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 1990 World Cup

Final positions (final round)

RankTeamPldPts
1Flag of Costa Rica.svg  Costa Rica 811
2Flag of the United States.svg  United States 811
3Flag of Trinidad and Tobago.svg  Trinidad and Tobago 89
4Flag of Guatemala.svg  Guatemala 83
5Flag of El Salvador.svg  El Salvador 82

CONMEBOL

The 9 teams are divided into 3 groups of 3 teams

Group 1 – Uruguay qualified.
Group 2 – Colombia advanced to the Intercontinental Play-off.
Group 3 – Brazil qualified.

OFC

Qualification for OFC teams consisted of two rounds. Four teams entered initially as they played in two home-and-away matches with the winners qualifying for the second round. They would be joined by Israel who had the bye in the first round with the three teams playing each other twice and the winner advancing to the intercontinental play-off against a CONMEBOL member. Israel won the group and advanced

Legend
Countries that advanced to the OFC–CONMEBOL play-off
Second round
TeamPldPts
Flag of Israel.svg  Israel 45
Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 44
Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 43
Source: RSSSF

UEFA

The 32 teams are divided into 7 groups, 4 groups of 5 teams and 3 groups of 4 teams each.

Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 1990 World Cup

Final positions (group stage)

Inter-confederation play-offs: CONMEBOL v OFC

The winning team of the OFC qualification tournament played the CONMEBOL group winner with the weakest record in a home-and-away play-off. The winner of this play-off qualified for the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

Team 1 Agg. Tooltip Aggregate scoreTeam 21st leg2nd leg
Colombia  Flag of Colombia.svg1–0Flag of Israel.svg  Israel 1–0 0–0

Top goalscorers

7 goals
6 goals

Notes

References

  1. "History of the FIFA World Cup Preliminary Competition (by year)" (PDF). FIFA.com. 27 July 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  2. "Mexico Given Ban In Soccer". The New York Times. 1 July 1988. Archived from the original on 2 July 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Stokkermans, Karel; Henrique Jarreta, Sergio (14 March 2024). "World Cup 1990 Qualifying". RSSSF . Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  4. "Rosenery Mello do Nascimento, a "Fogueteira do Maracanã", tem morte cerebral por aneurisma no Rio aos 45 anos". Cabeça de Cuia (in Portuguese). 2011-06-06. Archived from the original on 2011-09-11. Retrieved 2011-06-06.
  5. Goal.com – Editorial/Comment – Own Goal: Faking Being Hit By Objects Archived 2007-10-15 at the Wayback Machine
  6. "FIFA lifts Rojas lifetime ban". CBC Sports. 30 April 2001. Retrieved 9 April 2010.