Qualification
Ninety-eight countries took part in the qualifying tournament, and some of football's most successful nations did not qualify. Alongside the champions of the 1966 tournament, England; France, the USSR, Hungary and Spain were knocked out. First-time qualifiers included East Germany, Haiti, Australia and Zaire, the first team from sub-Saharan Africa to reach the World Cup finals. The Netherlands and Poland qualified for the first time since 1938, while Australia would not qualify again until the next time the tournament was held in Germany, in 2006.
Read more about this topic: 1974 FIFA World Cup