Editing 1966 FIFA World Cup (section)

===Qualification===
{{Main|1966 FIFA World Cup qualification}}

Despite the Africans' absence, there was another new record number of entries for the qualifying tournament, with 70 nations taking part. FIFA determined that ten teams from Europe would qualify, along with four from South America, one from Asia and one from North and Central America.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://es.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/mcwc/fifaworldcuppreliminaryhistory_byyear__13876.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717045303/http://es.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/mcwc/fifaworldcuppreliminaryhistory_byyear__13876.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 July 2011|title=History of the FIFA World Cup Preliminary Competition (by year)|date=27 July 2007|website=FIFA.com|access-date=9 October 2017}}</ref>

Portugal and North Korea qualified for the first time. Portugal would not qualify again until [[1986 FIFA World Cup|1986]], while North Korea's next appearance was at the [[2010 FIFA World Cup|2010 tournament]]. This was also Switzerland's last World Cup finals until [[1994 FIFA World Cup|1994]]. Notable absentees from this tournament included [[1962 FIFA World Cup|1962]] runners-up [[Czechoslovakia national football team|Czechoslovakia]] and semi-finalists [[Yugoslavia national football team|Yugoslavia]].<ref name=":1"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://scoreshelf.com/dvcb/en/World_Cup/1966/UEFA|title=UEFA Qualifiers for the World Cup 1966|website=Score Shelf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818164407/https://scoreshelf.com/dvcb/en/World_Cup/1966/UEFA|archive-date=18 August 2016|access-date=9 October 2017}}</ref>