Editing 1934 FIFA World Cup (section)

==Qualification and participants==
{{main|1934 FIFA World Cup qualification}}

36 countries applied to enter the tournament, so qualifying matches were required to thin the field to 16.<ref name="Hunt 2006 23"/> Even so, there were several notable absentees. Reigning World Cup holders [[Uruguay national football team|Uruguay]] declined to participate, in protest at the refusal of several European countries to travel to South America for the [[1930 FIFA World Cup|previous World Cup]], which Uruguay had hosted in 1930.<ref name="football_times" >{{Cite web |url=https://thesefootballtimes.co/2016/07/27/when-the-world-cup-rolled-into-fascist-italy-in-1934/ |title=When the World Cup rolled into fascist Italy in 1934 |last=Hart |first=Jim |date=27 July 2016 |website=[[These Football Times]] |language=en |access-date=14 June 2018}}</ref> As a result, the 1934 World Cup is the only one in which the reigning champions did not participate.<ref name="Freddi 2006 15"/><ref>{{Harvcolnb|Glanville|2005|p=25}}</ref> The British [[Home Nations]], in a period of self-imposed exile from FIFA, also refused to participate, even though FIFA had offered England and Scotland direct entry to the tournament without qualification.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.fifa.com/development/news/y=1999/m=8/news=british-society-sports-history-71171.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019043353/http://www.fifa.com/development/news/y=1999/m=8/news=british-society-sports-history-71171.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 October 2015 |title=British football and FIFA, 1928-46: Going to war or peacefully coexistence? |last=Beck |first=Peter J. |year=1999 |website=FIFA.com |access-date=27 February 2018}}</ref> [[The Football Association|Football Association]] committee member [[Charles Sutcliffe]] called the tournament "a joke" and claimed that "the national associations of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland have quite enough to do in their [[British Home Championship|own International Championship]] which seems to me a far better World Championship than the one to be staged in Rome".<ref>{{cite book |first=Matthew |last=Taylor |title=The Leaguers: The Making of Professional Football in England 1900-1939 |page=217 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mO0WDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA217 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |location=Liverpool |year=2005 |isbn=9781781387030}}</ref>

Despite their role as hosts, [[Italy national football team|Italy]] were still required to qualify, the only time the host needed to do so.<ref name="Hunt 2006 23"/> The qualifying matches were arranged on a geographical basis. Withdrawals by [[Chile national football team|Chile]] and [[Peru national football team|Peru]] meant [[Argentina national football team|Argentina]] and [[Brazil national football team|Brazil]] qualified without playing a single match.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Crouch|2002|p=14}}</ref>

Twelve of the 16 places were allocated to Europe, three to the Americas, and one to Africa or Asia (including Turkey). Only 10 of the 32 entrants, and four of the 16 qualified teams (Brazil, Argentina, United States and Egypt, the first African team to qualify for a World Cup finals tournament), were from outside Europe. The last place in the finals was contested between the [[United States men's national soccer team|United States]] and [[Mexico national football team|Mexico]] only three days before the start of the tournament in a one-off match in [[Rome]], which the United States won.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/story/1834539/world-cup-history-1934 |title=World Cup History: 1934 |last1=Brewin |first1=John |last2=Williamson |first2=Martin |date=1 May 2014 |website=ESPN |access-date=15 June 2018}}</ref>

===List of qualified teams===

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.
{{col begin}}
{{col-4}}
'''Asia (0)'''
* None qualified
'''Africa (1)'''
*{{fb|EGY|1922}} (debut)
{{col-4}}
'''North, Central America and Caribbean (1)'''
*{{fb|USA|1912}}
'''South America (2)'''
*{{fb|ARG|1861}}
*{{fb|BRA|1889}}
{{col-4}}
'''Europe (12)'''
*{{fb|AUT}} (debut)
*{{fb|BEL}}
*{{fb|Czechoslovakia}} (debut)
*{{fb|FRA|1830}}
*{{fb|GER|1933}} (debut)
*{{fb|HUN|1920}} (debut)
*{{fb|ITA|1861}} (hosts, debut)
*{{fb|NED}} (debut)
*{{fb|ROM}}
*{{fb|ESP|1931}} (debut)
*{{fb|SWE}} (debut)
*{{fb|SUI}} (debut)
{{col-4}}
{{col end}}

10 of these teams made their first World Cup appearance.<ref name="kit" /> This included 9 of the 12 European teams (Italy, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Austria, and Switzerland) as well as Egypt.<ref name="kit" /> Egypt was the first team from Africa in the finals and would not qualify again until the next time the competition was held in Italy, in [[1990 FIFA World Cup|1990]].