Kualifikasi Piala Dunia FIFA

Kualifikasi Piala Dunia FIFA adalah proses kualifikasi tim sepak bola nasional untuk menuju ke Putaran Final Piala Dunia FIFA.
Turnamen kualifikasi tersebut diadakan di enam zona kontinental FIFA (Afrika, Asia, Amerika Utara dan Tengah dan Caribbean, Amerika Selatan, Oceania, Eropa), dan diorganisir oleh konfederasi respektif mereka.

Ringkasan (Sepuluh Terbaik)

Penjatahan tempat 

 <div id="1938q">1 Pada tahun 1938, Austria mundur setelah kualifikasi karena dianeksasi oleh Jerman dan tidak digantikan, sehingga hanya 15 tim, 12 di antaranya dari Eropa, bermain di final.
 <div id="1950q">2 Pada tahun 1950, India, Skotlandia dan Turki mundur setelah kualifikasi dan tidak diganti, sehingga hanya 13 tim, tidak satupun dari mereka Asia dan 6 dari mereka Eropa, bermain di final.
 <div id="1958q">3 Awalnya tahun 1958, Afrika dan Asia sama-sama diberi 1 tempat, sedangkan Eropa diberi 9 tempat. Namun, setelah Israel memenangkan zona Afrika dan Asia tanpa memainkan pertandingan apa pun karena penarikan tim lain, sebuah play-off khusus diatur antara mereka dan tim Eropa (Wales). Akibatnya, Afrika dan Asia bersama-sama diberi 0,5 tempat, sedangkan Eropa diberi 9,5 tempat.
 <div id="1962q">4 Pada tahun 1962, Eropa diberi 8 tempat otomatis, ditambah 2 tempat tambahan di play-off antarbenua, yang pada dasarnya memberi mereka 9 tempat. Kedua tim Eropa memainkan tim Afrika dan tim Asia, dan kedua tim Eropa menang. Sebab, 10 tim Eropa bermain di final.
 <div id="1994q">5 Pada tahun 1994, ada dua babak play-off antarbenua. Pertama, tim Oseania memainkan tim dari Amerika Utara dan Tengah serta Karibia, dan pemenangnya bermain dengan tim Amerika Selatan.
 <div id="2006q">6 Sejak kualifikasi 2006 dan seterusnya, juara bertahan tidak lagi mendapatkan tempat otomatis.

Peserta kualifikasi 

 1 Because the Oceania Football Confederation has used the World Cup Qualifiers as a phase of (or as the entire) OFC Nations Cup, there is the possibility that non-FIFA countries may play in matches that double as World Cup qualifiers. In the 2006 qualifiers, New Caledonia were included in the tournament although they were not FIFA members at the date of close of entries. They are, however, included in the 12 nations listed as they joined FIFA during the course of qualification, even though they had been technically eliminated from contention a few days earlier (a similar situation occurred in the entries for 2010, with Montenegro's entry accepted prior to their admission by FIFA). By contrast, Tuvalu competed in the 2007 South Pacific Games Football tournament, which doubled as qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup. As they were not FIFA members at the time of the completion of the competition, they are not included in the 11 OFC entrants, although their results counted towards the qualification of other teams.
 2 From 1973 to 1989, the CONCACAF Championship and its qualifying tournament were used to determine CONCACAF's entrant in the World Cup. The confederation's champion qualified outright.
 3 "Teams played" is the total number of teams that played at least one qualifying match.
 4 This number includes Tuvalu (see note 1) and South Africa. Although South Africa qualified automatically for 2010 as hosts, they competed in the CAF qualifiers, becoming the first hosts to compete in World Cup qualifying since 1934. This is because the Confederation of African Football used its 2010 World Cup qualifiers as the qualifying phase for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, a tournament for which South Africa had attempted to qualify.

Pranala luar 
 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Competition Statistics (from FIFA.com) 
 FIFA World Cup Preliminary History (from FIFA.com) 
 FIFA World Cup 2010 Regulations 
 33 facts you need to know about the 2010 FIFA World Cup preliminary competition