A total of 37 teams entered the 1954 FIFA World Cupqualification rounds, competing for a total of 16 spots in the final tournament. Switzerland, as the hosts, and Uruguay, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots open for competition.
37 teams were divided into 13 groups, based on geographical considerations, as follows:
Groups 1 to 10 – Europe: 11 places, contested by 27 teams (including Egypt and Israel).
Group 11 and 12 – The Americas: 2 places, contested by 7 teams.
A total of 33 teams played at least one qualifying match. A total of 57 qualifying matches were played, and 208 goals were scored (an average of 3.65 per match).
Listed below are the dates and results of the qualification rounds.
Groups
The 13 groups had different rules, as follows:
Groups 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, and 10 had 3 teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify.
Groups 5, 6 and 9 had 2 teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify.
Group 3 had 4 teams. The teams played against each other once. The group winner and runner-up would qualify.
Group 11 had 4 teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner would qualify.
Group 12 had 3 teams. The teams played against each other twice. The group winner would qualify.
Group 13 had 3 teams. After Republic of China withdrew before the matches began, the remaining 2 teams played against each other twice. The group winner would qualify.
Luigi Franco Gemma, a 14-year-old Italian boy whose father worked at the stadium, picked Turkey's name from the lots with his eyes blindfolded.[1][2] Therefore, Turkey qualified. This is the first time Spain failed to qualify.
Since the 1970 FIFA World Cup finals, goal difference has been used as a tiebreaker for future qualifying rounds. Had those rules been in place, Spain would have qualified, and Turkey would have been eliminated. This was the only time winner of aggregate score failed to qualify.
Turkey qualified via the drawing of lots, after they and Spain finished level on points in Group 6 and a drawn play-off match in Rome.
For the first time, qualification matches were actually played in South America; in the four previous World Cups, the South American teams qualified automatically due to withdrawals (in the case of 1934) or through the South American Football Championship (for the 1938 and 1950 tournaments), while there was no qualifying process in 1930. Argentina did not take part in the qualification process.
As the French-occupied Saarland protectorate did not become part of Germany until 1957, the Saarland national team entered their only World Cup competition and actually had to play Germany in the qualifiers.
After being banned from the 1950 tournament following the Second World War, Germany and Japan were both allowed to play again. West Germany qualified and became champions after defeating Hungary with a score of 3–2 in the final that became known as the Miracle of Bern.
