1934 FIFA World Cup qualification

1934 FIFA World Cup qualification
The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the first World Cup for which teams had to qualify, after the finalists in the inaugural 1930 World Cup had participated by invitation from FIFA. With 32 teams having entered the 1934 competition, FIFA organized qualification rounds to select 16 teams for the finals. Even Italy, the host of the World Cup, had to earn its spot, the only time this has been the case. The previous champion Uruguay refused to defend its title because many European nations had declined to take part in the 1930 World Cup, held in Uruguay.
Of the 32 teams which entered,
Chile, Peru and Turkey all withdrew before qualifying began.
Brazil and Argentina qualified without playing any matches owing to the withdrawal of their opponents.
The other 27 teams played at least one qualifying match.
Greece, Bulgaria and Poland withdrew partway through the planned schedule of qualifying matches.
The first match, between Sweden and Estonia, took place in Stockholm on 11 June 1933, with Swedish player Knut Kroon scoring the first goal. The last match was played in Rome only three days before the start of the tournament, as late entrant United States beat Mexico to become the final team to qualify.
Format
The 32 teams were divided into 12 groups, based on geographical considerations, as follows:
Groups 1 to 8 – Europe: 12 places, contested by 21 teams.
Groups 9, 10 and 11 – Americas: 3 places, contested by 8 teams.
Group 12 – Africa and Asia: 1 place, contested by 3 teams (including Turkey).
The 12 groups had different rules, as follows:
Group 1 had 3 teams. The teams played against each other once. The group winner would qualify.
Groups 2, 3 and 5 had 2 teams each. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify.
Group 4 had 3 teams. The teams played against each other twice. The group winner and runner-up would qualify.
Groups 6, 7 and 8 had 3 teams each. The teams played against each other once. The group winners and runners-up would qualify.
Groups 9 and 10 had 2 teams each. The group winners would qualify.
Group 11 had 4 teams. There would be three rounds of play:
First Round: Haiti played against Cuba thrice. The winner would advance to the Second Round.
Second Round: Mexico played against the winner of the First Round thrice at home. The winner would advance to the Final Round.
Final Round: USA played against the winner of the Second Round in a single match on neutral ground. The winner would qualify.
Group 12 had 3 teams. After Turkey withdrew before the matches began, the remaining 2 teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner would qualify.
Key:
Teams highlighted in green qualified for the finals.
Teams highlighted in orange qualified for the next phase of their group.
Groups
Group 1
Estonia v Lithuania was not played since neither team could qualify with a win.
Sweden qualified.
Group 2
11–1 on aggregate; Spain qualified.
Group 3
Italy qualified, as Greece declined to play the second match.
Group 4
Bulgaria withdrew, and the remaining matches were not played since Hungary and Austria were already assured of the top two spots.
Hungary and Austria qualified.
Group 5
Czechoslovakia qualified.
Group 6
Romania and Switzerland qualified.
Group 7
Netherlands and Belgium qualified (Belgium finished above the Irish Free State on goal average).
Group 8
Germany v France was not played since both teams were already assured of the top two spots.
Germany and France qualified.
Group 9
Peru withdrew, so Brazil qualified automatically.
Group 10
Chile withdrew, so Argentina qualified automatically.
Group 11
First round
10–2 on aggregate; Cuba advanced to the Second Round.
Second round
12–3 on aggregate; Mexico advanced to the Final Round.
Final round
The match to decide whether the United States or Mexico would qualify was played only three days before the start of the final tournament, as the United States submitted their entry too late. Thus, the match was played in Italy, so that the winner would effectively stay in the country for the tournament.
United States qualified.
Group 12
The Palestine football team consisted exclusively of Jewish and British players.
FIFA states, in reference to the 1930s Palestine Mandate team, that the 'Palestine team' that participated in previous competitions in the 1930s was actually the forerunner of today's Israel team, and as such bears no relation to the modern-day Palestine national team. However, the region currently known as Palestine is considered one of the first Asian teams to compete in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
11–2 on aggregate; Egypt qualified.
Qualified teams
Only six of the teams qualifying for the final competition – Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Romania, and the USA – had already attended the World Cup in 1930.
Goalscorers
7 goals
Mario López
Dionisio Mejía
Isidro Lángara
5 goals
Mahmoud Mokhtar El Tetsh
Paddy Moore
4 goals
Jean Nicolas
Josef Rasselnberg
Beb Bakhuys
Aldo Donelli
3 goals
Johann Horvath
Mohamed Latif
Karl Hohmann
Gábor P. Szabó
Manuel Alonso
Kick Smit
2 goals
François Vanden Eynde
Héctor Socorro
Mostafa Taha
Robert St. Fort
József Solti
Giuseppe Meazza
Leen Vente
Ștefan Dobay
Luis Regueiro
Bertil Ericsson
Knut Hansson
Vladimir Kragić
1 goal
Matthias Sindelar
Rudolf Viertl
Karl Zischek
Jean Capelle
Stan Vanden Eynde
Laurent Grimmonprez
Bernard Voorhoof
Dimitar Baikushev
Mihail Lozanov
Vladimir Todorov
Enrique Ferrer
Ángel Martínez
Francisco Socorro
Salvador Soto
František Pelcner
Josef Silný
Abdulrahman Fawzi
Leonhard Kass
Richard Kuremaa
Alfred Aston
Ernest Libérati
Ernst Albrecht
Willi Wigold
Imre Markos
György Sárosi
Géza Toldi
Johnny Squires
Giovanni Ferrari
Anfilogino Guarisi
Ernest Mengel
Théophile Speicher
Avraham Nudelmann
Yohanan Sukenik
Fernando Marcos
Felipe Rosas
José Ruvalcaba
Jorge Sota
Henryk Martyna
Vítor Silva
Sándor Schwartz
Grațian Sepi
Eduardo González
Martí Ventolrà
Sven Andersson
Lennart Bunke
Torsten Bunke
Knut Kroon
Alessandro Frigerio
Erwin Hochsträsser
Ernst Hufschmid
Willy Jäggi
Blagoje Marjanović
Footnotes
References
External links
1934 FIFA World Cup qualification at FIFA.com
1934 FIFA World Cup qualification at RSSSF.com
Football World Cup
Qualification
FIFA World Cup qualification