The
qualification competition for the
1990 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six
FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the
Asian Football Confederation (AFC),
Confederation of African Football (CAF),
CONCACAF (North America),
CONMEBOL (South America),
Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), and
UEFA (Europe) — was allocated a certain number of the 24 places at the tournament. A total of 116 teams entered the competition, with
Italy, as the host, and
Argentina, as the holders, qualifying for the final tournament automatically.