Playoffs? PLAYOFFS?! - Association Football - International Playoffs

International Playoffs

In international football, playoffs were a feature of the 1954 and 1958 FIFA World Cup final tournaments. They are still a feature of the qualification tournaments for the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Football Championship.

In the qualification playoffs for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, for example:

• In Europe, after the first-place finishers in each of eight groups received automatic finals places, along with the two second-place teams that had earned the most points against teams in the top six of their individual groups, the remaining six second-placed teams entered playoffs to select three teams for the finals.
• The winners of the Oceania qualifying tournament, Australia played the fifth placed team from the South American qualifying tournament, Uruguay.
• The fifth-placed team of the Asia qualifying tournament, Bahrain played the fourth-placed team in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament, Trinidad and Tobago.