Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oceania), and UEFA (Europe) — was allocated a certain number of the 32 places at the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

174 teams entered the qualification rounds, while two places were reserved for France and Brazil as host nation and defending champions, respectively.

The distribution by confederation for the 1998 FIFA World Cup was: A total of 36 teams entered the competition.

Mexico, the US, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Canada, the six highest-ranked teams according to FIFA, received byes and advanced to the third round directly.

Brazil, the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 4 spots open for competition between 9 teams.

France, the hosts, qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots open for competition between 49 teams.

In the play-offs, the 8 teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis.