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National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup

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National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup

This article lists the performances of each of the 77 national teams which have made at least one appearance in the FIFA World Cup finals.

Contents

Debut of teams

Each successive World Cup has had at least one team appearing for the first time, in alphabetical order per year. Teams in parentheses are considered successor teams by FIFA.

*This total number of teams which have participated in the World Cups through 2014 is 77, using FIFA's view on successor teams (e.g., Russia is a successor of USSR and not a separate team, whereas Ukraine is a newer separate entity).

#Qualified but withdrew

 Qatar will make its debut in 2022 at the latest. It has qualified for the 2022 World Cup as host, but may still qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

Comprehensive team results by tournament

Legend
  • 1st — Champions
  • 2nd — Runners-up
  • 3rd — Third place
  • 4th — Fourth place
  • QF — Quarterfinals (1934–1938, 1954–1970, and 1986–present: knockout round of 8)
  • R2 — Round 2 (1974–1978, second group stage, top 8; 1982: second group stage, top 12; 1986–present: knockout round of 16)
  • R1 — Round 1
  • q — Qualified for upcoming tournament
  •  ••  — Qualified but withdrew
  •  •  — Did not qualify
  •  ×  — Did not enter / Withdrew / Banned / Entry not accepted by FIFA
  •    — Hosts
  •     — Not affiliated to FIFA
  •  % — Success rate of reaching the World Cup Finals (only counting the times the team entered the tournament)

    • The team ranking in each tournament is according to FIFA. The rankings, apart from the top four positions (top two in 1930), are not a result of direct competition between the teams; instead, teams eliminated in the same round are ranked by their full results in the tournament. In recent tournaments, FIFA has used the rankings for seedings for the final tournament draw.

    For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.

    Qatar qualified in 2022 Qatar World Cup

    Ranking of teams by number of appearances

    Breakdown of successor teams

    Overall team records

    As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws. 3 points per win, 1 point per draw and 0 points per loss.

    Breakdown of successor teams

    Results of host nations

    Except 1934, host nations are granted an automatic spot in the World Cup finals. The first host ever to fail to advance past the first round was South Africa in 2010. † denotes the best result in the team's history, ‡ - the best result at the time of the competition (improved later).

    Results of defending finalists

    Until November 2001, defending champions were granted an automatic spot in the World Cup finals. Since 2006, they have to enter qualifying as well.

    Results by confederation

       — Hosts are from this confederation

    References

    National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA