FIFA World Cup qualification in the context of "2022 FIFA World Cup qualification"

The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has been held every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 due to the Second World War. The reigning champions are Argentina, who won their third title at the 2022 World Cup by defeating France.

The contest starts with the qualification phase, which takes place over the preceding three years to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase. In the tournament phase, 32 teams compete for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over the course of about a month. The host nation(s) automatically qualify for the group stage of the tournament. The competition is scheduled to expand to 48 teams, starting with the 2026 World Cup.

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.

The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the 2nd edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934.

The 1934 World Cup was the first in which teams had to qualify to take part. Thirty-two nations entered the competition; 16 teams would qualify for the final tournament. Reigning champions Uruguay boycotted the tournament as only four European teams had accepted their invitation to the 1930 tournament. Italy beat Czechoslovakia 2–1 to become the second World Cup champions and the first European winners.

The Australia men's national soccer team represents Australia in international men's soccer. Officially nicknamed the Socceroos, the team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is affiliated with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the regional ASEAN Football Federation (AFF).

The team played its first match in 1922 and originally participated in the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). In this confederation, Australia won the OFC Nations Cup four times between 1980 and 2004, and dominated many FIFA World Cup qualification campaigns during earlier rounds. The team won 31–0 against American Samoa in a FIFA World Cup qualification match, achieving the world record for the largest victory in a senior international match. Despite this, the team only managed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup twice in 11 attempts while in this confederation, due to Oceania's single qualification berth always leading to an intercontinental playoff, and thus, not guaranteeing straight qualification. The team moved to the AFC in 2006, winning the AFC Asian Cup once in 2015 (as hosts) and finishing runners-up in 2011. By winning this competition, Australia became the only team in the world to have won two different confederation cups. Since moving confederations, the team has also qualified for the World Cup in every attempt, qualifying five additional times for an overall seven qualifications. Australia has made appearances in the World Cup knockout stages twice, having progressed to this stage in 2006 and 2022. Despite being part of the AFF, Australia has not joined the ASEAN Championship due to mutual agreement.