2002 FIFA World Cup seeding The seedings table uses these points obtained from the 1990 FIFA World Cup, 1994 FIFA World Cup and the 1998 FIFA World Cup averaged in a 1:2:3 ratio respectively, added to the average amount of points derived from the World Rankings at three given dates (at ratio 1:1:1), December 1999, December 2000, and November 2001. All totals are rounded. South Korea and Japan were seeded as hosts, France as defending champions. The other seeds were: Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany and Spain. 2002 FIFA World Cup seeding To calculate the seeding for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, FIFA used the FIFA
2002 FIFA World Cup the second being the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. The general secretary of South Korea's bidding committee, Song Young-shik, stated that FIFA was interested in staging some matches in North Korea in order to aid Korean reunification, but it was ruled out. At the time the decision was made, Japan had never qualified for a World Cup finals (although the Japanese did subsequently qualify for the 1998 competition). The only other countries to have been awarded a World Cup without previously having competed in a final tournament are Italy in 1934