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The Federation Internationale de Football Association, FIFA, helps write soccer's rulebook and organises worldwide tournaments. Of these tournaments, easily the most prestigious and the most popular is the World Cup, played every four years amongst the best men's national sides of the world.
The 2002 FIFA Men's World Cup will be played in South Korea and in Japan in MAY and JUN 2002 involving 32 national teams from around the world. The trouble is, how do you decide which 32? That's where qualification comes in.
AUTOMATIC QUALIFIERS
France won the 1998 World Cup, the first team since Argentina in 1978 to hoist the trophy in their own country. They therefore have the right to defend their championship at Korea/Japan 2002. Normally, the other automatic slot goes to the host nation. But this World Cup has two host nations, so each will be given a berth in the final competition. That leaves only 29 more participants to be decided.
FIFA'S MEMBERSHIP
At the start of 1999, 203 national football associations were members of FIFA. Save for Burundi, Niger, North Korea, Afghanistan, and Papua New Guinea, all of them entered World Cup qualifying. France, the Korea Republic, and Japan didn't need to do anything, so the qualifying involved 195 nations. Check the Map to Korea/Japan 2002 to get a quick peek at the results.
Each member nation is also a member of one of FIFA's six regional confederations. The confederations are responsible for organising and conducting their respective World Cup qualifying tournaments subject to FIFA's rules about the overall structure of qualification.
ALLOCATION OF BERTHS
The remaining 29 berths were distributed to the confederations before qualifying started. The Union of European Football Associations, home of traditional powers like England, Italy, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands, were given 13½, not counting France's automatic berth. The Oceania Football Confederation, home of Australia, New Zealand, and a bunch of island nations that usually lose by a lot, has half a berth.
A half berth means that the berth could go to one of two different confederations. For example, the winner of OFC qualifying will play the fifth place team in the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol with a trip to Korea/Japan 2002 on the line. So CONMEBOL has 4½ berths, and the OFC has ½. The other shared berth for Korea/Japan 2002 is between UEFA and the Asian Football Confederation, which will send a team to play one of UEFA's representatives.
THE TOURNAMENTS
The confederations' tournaments were played until SUN 11 NOV 2001, with the playoffs in the following two weeks. The tournaments can be split into several rounds [like the Confederation of North/Central American and Caribbean Association Football] or can be contestested in a single round [like CONMEBOL]. Each round must be played in one of two formats: a knockout system or a league system.
KNOCKOUTS
This is the simplest method. Two teams play one another twice, one home and one away. For this reason, it's usually called a home and away series. Whoever scores more goals wins; if they finish tied, whoever scored the most goals away wins. [For example, in the CONCACAF first round Caribbean Pool 2 semifinal series between Antigua-Barbuda and Bermuda, the teams drew 0-0 in Antigua-Barbuda and 1-1 in Bermuda. Because Antigua-Barbuda were the away side in the higher scoring match, they were the winner.]
If the away goals rule doesn't break the tie, the second match is followed immediately by two 15 minute overtime periods, in which a golden goal wins. [The CONCACAF first round Caribbean Pool 1 quarterfinal series between Barbados and Grenada saw 2-2 draws in both matches, so the second leg in Grenada went to overtime. Llewellyn RILEY scored in the sixth minute of overtime to put Barbados through.] If the overtime finishes with no breakthrough, the match goes to a penalty shootout. [Barbados went on to the Pool 1 final against Cuba, with both matches finishing 1-1 and no goals scored in overtime. Barbados took the shootout 5-4 to go through to the CONCACAF semifinal round.]
GROUPS
The league system, better known as group play, is more common. Teams are drawn into groups of anywhere from three to ten, and a certain number advance out of the group. For instance, CONMEBOL's ten members are playing in one group. The four best qualify directly, and the fifth plays the OFC champion in a home and away series. Meanwhile, the forty AFC teams were split into ten groups of four in the first round. The groups are supposed to play a double round robin schedule, wherein each team plays two matches, one home and one away, against each of its foes. [There are exceptions; several AFC first round groups were played in only two venues, such as group 4, with the first six matches in Singapore and the last six in Kuwait.]
Three points are given for each win, one for a draw, and zero for a loss. If two or more teams finish tied, there are a series of tiebreakers to be used.
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Every once in a while, these tiebreakers won't be sufficient, and a playoff match on neutral ground becomes necessary. In CONCACAF semifinal round group E, Guatemala and Costa Rica were tied for second place with ten points. The second place team would advance, but not the third. Both teams scored nine goals and gave up six. Furthermore, both won 2-1 at the other team's home. That exhausted all the tiebreakers, so they went to a playoff in Miami. Costa Rica won 5-2 and went on to the final round.
THE WORLD CUP
When the dust settles, there will be 32 World Cup participants. On SAT 01 DEC 2001 in Busan, Korea Republic, they'll be drawn into eight groups of four. The groups will play single round robin schedules starting on FRI 31 MAY 2002. The two top teams in each group move through to the second round, which starts a series of single game playoffs through to the semifinals. The semifinal losers will play for third place in Daegu, Korea Rep, on SAT 29 JUN 2002, and the semifinal winners will play in the final match the following day in Yokohama, Japan. Whoever wins will receive the FIFA World Cup trophy, which is very expensive and quite heavy. It's probably really dirty by now - the current version has been in circulation since Germany 1974, when the homestanders took it.
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