FIFA World Cup hosts second of these, the 1938 FIFA World Cup, in France was controversial, as the South American countries had been led to understand that the World Cup would rotate between the two continents. Both Argentina and Uruguay thus boycotted the tournament. The first tournament following World War II, held in Brazil in 1950, had three teams withdraw for either financial problems or disagreements with the organization. To avoid any future boycotts or controversy, FIFA began a pattern of alternation between the Americas and Europe, which continued until the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Asia. The system evolved so that the host
2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC First Round 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC First Round The first round of AFC matches for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (and 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification) was played from 12 to 23 March 2015. A total of 12 teams (teams ranked 35–46 in the AFC entrant list) played home-and-away over two legs. The six winners advanced to the second round. The draw for the first round was held on 10 February 2015, 15:30 MST (), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The seeding was based on the FIFA World Rankings of January 2015 (shown in parentheses below).