2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (inter-confederation play-offs) played a two-legged home-and-away series. The two winners, decided on aggregate score, qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan. The first legs were played on 10 and 20 November 2001, and the second legs were played on 15 and 25 November 2001. <section begin=playoff1 /> <section end=playoff1 /> Republic of Ireland won 2–1 on aggregate and qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. <section begin=playoff2 /> <section end=playoff2 /> Uruguay won 3–1 on aggregate and qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. There were 7 goals scored in 4 matches, for an average of 1.75
2002 FIFA World Cup seeding 2002 FIFA World Cup seeding To calculate the seeding for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, FIFA used the FIFA World Rankings in combination with performances of national teams in the three previous World Cups. The formula is virtually identical with the one used for the 1998 FIFA World Cup seeding. For the ranking part, points were allocated on the basis of 32 for the best achieving of the 32 qualifiers for 2002 FIFA World Cup in each of the three fields considered, down to one for the lowest ranking. For the World Cup performance part, points were allocated as follows: