World Cup 1938 Qualifying

Qualified as hosts: France
Qualified as holders: Italy

Group 1 [Germany, Sweden]
16.06.37  Stockholm   Sweden           4-0 Finland            1.GERMANY          3  3  0  0  11- 1  6
20.06.37  Stockholm   Sweden           7-2 Estonia            2.SWEDEN           3  2  0  1  11- 7  4
29.06.37  Helsinki    Finland          0-2 Germany            3.Estonia          3  1  0  2   4-11  2
19.08.37  Turku       Finland          0-1 Estonia            4.Finland          3  0  0  3   0- 7  0
29.08.37  Königsberg  Germany          4-1 Estonia
21.11.37  Hamburg     Germany          5-0 Sweden

Group 2a [Norway]
10.10.37  Oslo        Norway           3-2 Ireland
07.11.37  Dublin      Ireland          3-3 Norway

Group 2b [Poland]
10.10.37  Warszawa    Poland           4-0 Yugoslavia
03.04.38  Beograd     Yugoslavia       1-0 Poland

Group 3 [Romania]
Egypt withdrew, Romania had a walkover.

Group 4 [Switzerland]
01.05.38  Milano      Switzerland      2-1 Portugal

Group 5 [Hungary]
1st round
22.01.38  Tel-Aviv    Palestina        1-3 Greece
20.02.38  Athinai     Greece           1-0 Palestina
2nd round
25.03.38  Budapest    Hungary         11-1 Greece

Group 6 [Czechoslovakia]
07.11.37  Sofia       Bulgaria         1-1 Czechoslovakia
24.04.38  Praha       Czechoslovakia   6-0 Bulgaria

Group 7 [Austria]
1st round
29.07.37  Riga        Latvia           4-2 Lithuania
03.09.37  Kaunas      Lithuania        1-5 Latvia
2nd round
05.10.37  Wien        Austria          2-1 Latvia

Group 8 [Netherlands, Belgium]
28.11.37  Rotterdam   Netherlands      4-0 Luxembourg
13.03.38  Luxembourg  Luxembourg       2-3 Belgium
03.04.38  Antwerpen   Belgium          1-1 Netherlands

Group 9 [Dutch East Indies]
Tie was to be decided over one match in Saigon on 25 January 1938.
Japan withdrew, Dutch East Indies had a walkover.  

NB: after Japan's withdrawal, FIFA ruled that the Dutch East Indies had to 
    play off against the USA for a place in the final tournament.
    The match was scheduled for 26 May 1938 (Ascension Day) in Rotterdam
    (Netherlands) but the USA withdrew at the end of April for financial
    reasons (they had hoped to finance the trip to Europe with the profits
    of a match against an English team on the occasion of the silver jubilee
    of the American federation, but the English cancelled the match refusing
    to play on a Sunday) and the Dutch Indies qualified by walkover.

Group 10 [Brazil]
Argentina withdrew, Brazil had a walkover.

NB: Argentina were later allowed to re-enter and in January 1938 they were
    scheduled to play the winners of Central America in Bordeaux on 29 May 1938;
    however, Argentina withdrew again in spite of the fact they had been included
    among the 8 seeded nations in the final tournament in the draw of the fixtures 
    on 5 March 1938.

Groups 11/12 [Cuba]

Group 11
Mexico withdrew; USA scheduled to play Dutch East Indies on 26 May 1938
in Rotterdam (see group 9) but withdrew in April.

Group 12
A tournament was announced for the second half of April 1938 between
Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica and El Salvador, in a knock-out format
with each tie decided over three legs.  Surinam (Dutch Guyana) were
excluded on 9 April 1938 for allegedly having not replied to 
correspondence from the organisers, a decision against which Surinam 
successfully protested.  Later in April 1938, Colombia and El Salvador
withdrew, and a triangular tournament between Cuba, Costa Rica and
Surinam was to be played in La Habana, from which Surinam withdrew for
financial reasons (requesting instead to play the match against the
Dutch East Indies for which the USA had meanwhile withdrawn, but this
was refused by the FIFA), and as Costa Rica withdrew as well, Cuba had
a walkover, as the match scheduled for the winners of this group against
Argentina in Bordeaux on 29 May 1938 was also cancelled after the renewed
withdrawal of Argentina.

Detailed Infos

1938 Final Tournament

Overview File


About this document

Prepared and maintained by Karel Stokkermans and Sergio Henrique Jarreta for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation

Authors: Karel Stokkermans and Sergio Henrique Jarreta
Last updated: 4 Jun 2020

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