The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the first World Cup for which teams had to qualify, after the finalists in the inaugural 1930 World Cup had participated by invitation from FIFA. With 32 teams having entered the 1934 competition, FIFA organized qualification rounds to select 16 teams for the finals. Even Italy, the host of the World Cup, had to earn its spot, the only time this has been the case.
Of the 32 teams which entered,
- Chile, Peru and Turkey all withdrew before qualifying began.
Sweden qualified.
Group 2
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Spain qualified.
Group 3
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|-
!width=30|Rank
!width=165 style="text-align:left;"|Team
!width=20|
!width=20|
!width=20|
!width=20|
!width=20|
!width=20|
!width=20|
!width=20|
|- style="background:#ccffcc;"
|1
|style="text-align:left;"|
|1||1||0||0||4||0||4.00||2
|-
| 2
|style="text-align:left;"|
|1||0||0||1||0||4||0.00||0
|}
Italy qualified, as Greece declined to play the second match.
|team2 =
|goals1 =
|goals2 =
|location =
|stadium = Prague, Czechoslovakia
|attendance =
|referee =
Czechoslovakia qualified.
Group 6
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
!width=30|Rank
!width=165 style="text-align:left;"|Team
!width=20|
!width=20|
!width=20|
!width=20|
!width=20|
!width=20|
!width=20|
!width=20|
|- style="background:#ccffcc;"
|1
|style="text-align:left;"|
|2||1||1||0||4||3||1.33||3
|- style="background:#ccffcc;"
|2
|style="text-align:left;"|
|2||0||2||0||4||4||1.00||2
|-
|3
|style="text-align:left;"|
|2||0||1||1||3||4||0.75||1
|}
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Romania and Switzerland qualified.
Group 7
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Netherlands and Belgium qualified (Belgium finished above the Irish Free State on goal average).
FIFA states, in reference to the 1930s Palestine Mandate team, that the 'Palestine team' that participated in previous competitions in the 1930s was actually the forerunner of today's Israel team, and as such bears no relation to the modern-day Palestine national team. However, the region currently known as Palestine is considered one of the first Asian teams to compete in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
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11–2 on aggregate; Egypt qualified.
Qualified teams
Only six of the teams qualifying for the final competition – Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Romania, and the USA – had already attended the World Cup in 1930.