The qualification rounds took place between August 1960 and December 1961, with 56 teams entering from six confederations, and fourteen qualifying for the finals tournament alongside Chile, the hosts, and Brazil, the defending champions.

After Europe hosted two consecutive World Cups, the American federations demanded the 1962 edition must be held in South America or they would stage a complete boycott of the tournament, similar to 1938.

Magallanes' chairman, Ernesto Alvear, attended a FIFA Congress held in Helsinki while the Finnish city was hosting the 1952 Summer Olympics.

That day, Raul Colombo, representing Argentina's candidacy, ended his speech with the phrase "We can start the World Cup tomorrow.

In addition, Dittborn invoked Article 2 of the FIFA statutes that addressed the tournament's role in promoting the sport in countries deemed "underdeveloped".

[2] In a counter-point to Colombo's claim that "We have it all" Dittborn coined the phrase "Because we have nothing, we want to do it all" (Spanish: Porque no tenemos nada, queremos hacerlo todo) around the fifteenth minute of his speech.

Chile as host nation and Brazil as reigning World Cup champions were granted automatic qualification, with the remaining 14 finals places divided among the continental confederations.

Originally, eight stadiums were selected to host the World Cup matches in eight cities: Santiago, Viña del Mar, Rancagua, Arica, Talca, Concepción, Talcahuano and Valdivia.

With over 50,000 casualties and more than 2 million people affected, the earthquake forced the organising committee to completely modify the World Cup's calendar.

In May 1960, as the preparations were well under way, Chile suffered the largest earthquake ever recorded (9.5 magnitude), which caused enormous damage to the national infrastructure.

In the face of this, Carlos Dittborn, the president of the Organization Committee, coined the phrase "Porque nada tenemos, lo haremos todo" (Because we have nothing, we will do everything).

Two Italian journalists had written unflattering articles about the host country and its capital city; describing Santiago as a "proudly backwards and poverty-stricken dump full of prostitution and crime".

[11] Articles in the Italian papers La Nazione and Corriere della Sera were saying that allowing Chile to host the World Cup was "pure madness"; this was used and magnified by local newspapers to inflame the Chilean population.

Bright spots included the emergence of the young Brazilians Amarildo (standing in for Pelé) and Garrincha, the heroics of Czechoslovakia goalkeeper Viliam Schrojf against Hungary and Yugoslavia, and the performance of the host nation Chile, who took third place with a squad of relatively unknown players.

This has been the best performance of a South American team in a World Cup so far without taking into account the historical ones (Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay).

In the first round, Brazil topped their group with Czechoslovakia finishing second, above Mexico and Spain, even as the latter had in their ranks the naturalized Ferenc Puskás and Alfredo Di Stéfano who, injured, was called up but did not play.

England had the same number of points as Argentina but progressed due to a superior goal average; the first time such a requirement had been necessary in a World Cup finals tournament.

As in the previous final in 1958, Brazil soon hit back, equalising two minutes later through Amarildo after an error by Czechoslovak goalkeeper Schroijf.

The match ended 3–1 to Brazil, a successful defence of the title for only the second time in the history of the competition in spite of the absence of one of their star players of 1958, Pelé, who was replaced by Amarildo.

With four goals each, Flórián Albert, Garrincha, Valentin Ivanov, Dražan Jerković, Leonel Sánchez and Vavá were the top scorers in the tournament.

In 1986, FIFA published a report that ranked all teams in each World Cup up to and including 1986, based on progress in the competition, overall results and quality of the opposition.