A total of 55 teams entered the 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds, competing for a total of 16 spots in the final tournament. Sweden as the hosts and West Germany, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots open for competition.

Qualification process The qualification rounds for the four previous World Cups differed widely, with controversial rules and many withdrawals. From this tournament onwards, FIFA divided the teams into several continental zones, assigned a pre-determined number of places in the final tournament to each zone, and delegated the organisation of the qualifying tournaments to its confederations: UEFA of Europe, CONMEBOL of South America, NAFC of North America, CCCF of Central America and Caribbean, CAF of Africa and AFC of Asia (and OFC of Oceania after it was formed later).

The 16 spots available in the 1958 World Cup would be distributed among the continental zones as follows: Europe (UEFA): 11 places, 2 of them went to automatic qualifiers Sweden and West Germany, while the other 9 places were contested by 27 teams. South America (CONMEBOL): 3 places, contested by 9 teams. North, Central America and Caribbean (NAFC/CCCF): 1 place, contested by 6 teams. Africa (CAF) and Asia (AFC): 1 place, contested by 11 teams (including Israel, Cyprus and Turkey). However, FIFA also imposed a rule that no team would qualify without playing at least one match because many teams qualified for previous World Cups without playing due to withdrawals of their opponents. Because Israel won the African and Asian zone under this circumstance, FIFA required them to enter a play-off against a team from Europe who initially did not qualify, with the winner of this play-off qualifying. Therefore, effectively in the end, a total of 11.5 places were granted to Europe while only 0.5 places were granted to Africa and Asia.

A total of 46 teams played at least one qualifying match. A total of 89 qualifying matches were played, and 341 goals were scored (an average of 3.83 per match).

Listed below are the dates and results of the qualification rounds.

Confederation qualification

AFC and CAF

Group 1Group 2Group 3Group 4

Second round

Third round

CCCF and NAFC

The 6 teams were divided into 2 groups with 3 teams each (Group 1 with teams from North America and Group 2 with teams from Central America and Caribbean). The teams played each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners advanced to the Final Round. The two teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis with the winner qualifying for the final tournament.

Group 1Group 2

Final Round CONMEBOL

The 9 teams were divided into 3 groups of 3 teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify.

Group 1Group 2Group 3

UEFA

The 27 teams were divided into 9 groups, each featuring 3 teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify. Denmark, East Germany, Iceland and the Soviet Union made their debuts in World Cup qualification.

Group 1Group 2Group 3Group 4Group 5Group 6Group 7Group 8Group 9

Inter-confederation play-offs: AFC/CAF v UEFA

A special play-off was created between Israel and the runner-up of one of the UEFA/CONMEBOL/CCCF/NAFC Groups, where the teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis, with the winner qualifying. Two-time champions Uruguay withdrew, while Northern Ireland and Italy had one final match yet to play, so all three were left out. Belgium, Bulgaria, Wales, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Peru, Bolivia and Costa Rica were left to draw. After Belgium refused, Wales, the runner-up of UEFA Group 4, was the team drawn from the UEFA group runners-up.

Qualified teams

TeamDate of qualificationFinals appearanceStreakLast appearance27 October 19573rd1193429 September 19573rd2195421 April 19576th6195427 October 19574th2195419 May 19573rd3195427 October 19575th2195410 November 19574th2195427 October 19574th3195415 January 19581st1—14 July 19573rd119506 November 19572nd21954 (hosts)23 June 19504th1195024 November 19571st1—5 February 19581st1— (defending champions)4 July 19544th2195417 November 19574th31954

Goalscorers

8 goals

Tommy Taylor

7 goals

Thadée Cisowski

5 goals

Crescencio Gutiérrez Jackie Mudie

4 goals

Paul Vandenberg Tadeusz Kraus John Atyeo Ferenc Machos Rusli Ramang Edward Jankowski Nikita Simonyan Ladislao Kubala

3 goals

Omar Oreste Corbatta Norberto Menéndez Gerhard Hanappi Maurice Willems Máximo Alcócer Hristo Iliev Jorge Hernán Monge Rodolfo Herrera González Álvaro Murillo Jean Vincent Dermot Curtis Alfredo Hernández Héctor Hernández Salvador Reyes Monteón Abe Lenstra Noud van Melis Juan Bautista Agüero Florencio Amarilla Anatoli Ilyin Eduard Streltsov Des Palmer Muhamed Mujić

2 goals

Roberto Zárate Hans Buzek Theodor Wagner Henri Coppens Victor Mees Richard Orlans Georgi Dimitrov Panayot Panayotov Art Hughes Brian Philley Gogie Stewart Mario Cordero Rubén Jiménez Rodríguez Danilo Montero Campos Wilfred de Lanoy Ove Bech Nielsen Günther Wirth Duncan Edwards Célestin Oliver Roger Piantoni Joseph Ujlaki Francisco López Contreras Lajos Csordás Nándor Hidegkuti Ríkharður Jónsson Þórður Jónsson Þórður Þórðarson Guido Gratton Carlos González Ligorio López Enrique Sesma Cor van der Gijp Jimmy McIlroy Harald Hennum Ángel Jara Saguier Enrique Jara Saguier Lucjan Brychczy Gerard Cieślik Manuel Vasques Alexandru Ene Anatoli Isayev Igor Netto Estanislao Basora Alfredo di Stéfano Luis Suárez Miramontes Josef Hügi Roger Vonlanthen Ed Murphy Ivor Allchurch Cliff Jones Miloš Milutinović

1 goal

Norberto Conde Eliseo Prado Robert Dienst Walter Haummer Karl Koller Ernst Kozlicek Helmut Senekowitsch Karl Stotz Otto Walzhofer André Van Herpe Denis Houf André Piters Ricardo Alcón Ausberto García Máximo Ramírez Didi Índio Spiro Debarski Todor Diev Ivan Petkov Kolev Krum Yanev Norm McLeod Ostap Steckiw Guillermo Díaz Jaime Ramírez Nian Weisi Sun Fucheng Wang Lu Zhang Honggen Carlos Arango Ricardo Díaz Jaime Gutiérrez Juan Soto Quiros Edgard Meulens Hubert Sambo Vlastimil Bubník Pavol Molnár Anton Moravčík Ladislav Novák Aage Rou Jensen John Jensen Manfred Kaiser Helmut Müller Willy Tröger Johnny Haynes Olavi Lahtinen Mauri Vanhanen Said Brahimi René Dereuddre Maryan Wisnieski Kostas Nestoridis Vaggelis Panakis Augusto Espinoza Jorge Vickers József Bozsik Károly Sándor Lajos Tichy Eddang Witarsa George Cummins Johnny Gavin Alf Ringstead Sergio Cervato Dino da Costa Gino Pivatelli Jean-Pierre Fiedler Johnny Halsdorf Léon Letsch Jaime Belmonte Toon Brusselers Coen Dillen Kees Rijvers Servaas Wilkes Billy Bingham Tommy Casey Wilbur Cush Billy Simpson Kjell Kristiansen Óscar Aguilera Alberto Terry Ginter Gawlik Matateu António Dias Teixeira Cornel Cacoveanu Titus Ozon Iosif Petschovsky Nicolae Tătaru John Hewie Tommy Ring Archie Robertson Alex Scott Gordon Smith Genrich Fedosov Valentin Kozmich Ivanov Boris Tatushin Yuri Voinov Miguel González Enrique Mateos Suleiman Faris Siddiq Manzul Robert Ballaman Ferdinando Riva Jabra Al-Zarqa Harry Keough Ruben Mendoza James Murphy Javier Ambrois Eladio Benítez William Martínez Óscar Míguez Dave Bowen Mel Charles Roy Vernon Dobrosav Krstić Aleksandar Petaković

1 own goal

Edgar Falch (playing against Hungary) Ray Daniel (playing against Czechoslovakia)

Notes Wales is the only team to ever qualify after having been eliminated and then reinstated. Their qualification meant that all four Home Nations qualified (the only time in history), and that no team from the separate African and Asian zone qualified. This remained Wales' only appearance in the finals until 2022, when they qualified through the European zone for the first time. Two-time former champions Uruguay, who in their three previous appearances had always benefited from direct qualifications or withdrawals, now failed in what was the first time they actually had to play qualifying games. Italy were eliminated in qualifying for the first time.

Footnotes

External links FIFA World Cup Official Site - 1958 World Cup Qualification RSSSF - 1958 World Cup Qualification