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 tournament.

South Korea and Japan, as the co-hosts, and France, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 29 spots open for competition.

The 32 spots available in the 2002 World Cup would be distributed among the continental zones as follows: A total of 193 teams played at least one qualifying match.

The Asian Football Confederation was allocated four and half qualifying berths for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, South Korea and Japan, the co-hosts, qualified automatically, leaving two and half spots open for competition between 40 teams.

The Confederation of African Football was allocated five qualifying berths for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

There would be two rounds of play: Australia's 31–0 win over American Samoa established a World Cup record for the highest margin of victory in a qualifying match.

Apart from France, who qualified automatically as holders, a total of thirteen and half slots in the final tournament were available for UEFA teams.

The Netherlands and Romania both failed to qualify for the tournament for the first time since 1986, the former finishing third in group 2 behind Portugal and Republic of Ireland and the latter suffering a shock loss to Slovenia in the play-offs.