The World Cup Qualification Process
The world cup, just like any other competition, has a process that is followed when picking the national teams that will participate in the competition. This special competition is held every four years, thus allowing enough time for the whole qualification process to take place.
Eligibility
Over 200 teams are eligible to take part in the World Cup. The first condition for a team to participate in the competition is to be a member of FIFA. Only 32 of the over 200 teams get to participate in the World Cup finals. Only the host country is given an automatic qualification to the competition. The rest have to try their best in the qualifying matches to get a chance to participate in the work cup competition. The reigning champions are no exception when it comes to these qualifying matches.
Qualification
The qualifiers are played according to regions. FIFA has assigned a certain number of teams that can participate in the competition from certain regions. This rule allows countries from all regions to have a chance to participate in the world cup.
- The Asian Continent has been given a total of either 4 or 5 slots in the competition. The continent has a total of 46 teams participating in the qualifiers matches.
- Africa has a total of 54 countries, with only five slots available for the continent in the finals.
- The Caribbean, North and Central America have 3 or 4 slots reserved for them in the competition. This region has 35 teams playing the qualifiers.
- South America has four or five slots in the cup competition. Only ten countries participate in the qualifiers in this region.
- Oceania has a total of 11 teams participating in the qualifiers. Out of these reams, either one or no team will qualify for the competition.
- Europe has a total of 55 teams taking part in the qualifiers matches. Only 13 of these teams qualify for the World Cup finals.