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2018 FIFA World Cup qualification

series of tournaments to decide which teams will play in the 21st FIFA World Cup

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ8346779 ↗
Source-derived summary

The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 remaining FIFA member associations were eligible to enter the qualifying process, and for the first time in World Cup history, all eligible national teams registered for the preliminary competition, but Zimbabwe and Indonesia were disqualified before playing their first matches. Bhutan, South Sudan, Gibraltar and Kosovo made their FIFA World Cup qualification debuts, while Myanmar participated after successfully appealing against a ban from the competition, although the team was obliged to play its home matches outside the country.

While the main qualifying draw took place at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, on 25 July 2015, qualification matches were played before that. The first, between Timor-Leste and Mongolia, began in Dili on 12 March 2015 as part of the AFC's qualification, with East Timorese player Chiquito do Carmo scoring the first goal in qualification. Matches were also played in CONCACAF prior to the main draw.

Qualified teams

Notes

Qualification process

The number of teams participating in the final tournament was 32. Even though the qualification process began in March 2015, the allocation of slots for each confederation was discussed by the FIFA Executive Committee on 30 May 2015 in Zürich after the FIFA Congress. It was decided that the same allocation as 2014 would be kept for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

Proposal for expansion

In October 2013, UEFA President Michel Platini proposed that the World Cup finals should be expanded from 32 to 40 teams starting from 2018.

Editorial summary

“2018 FIFA World Cup qualification” enters the record as series of tournaments to decide which teams will play in the 21st FIFA World Cup. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what FIFA, World and qualification can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2018, 2015, 2014, 2022—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around FIFA, World and qualification.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“2018 FIFA World Cup qualification” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, FIFA, World and qualification provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8346779. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2018, 2015, 2014 and 2022.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “2018 FIFA World Cup qualification”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification primary sources, 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification archive and FIFA research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “2018 FIFA World Cup qualification” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.