Belgium at the FIFA World Cup goal. Champions Runners-up Third place Fourth place Belgium at the FIFA World Cup Belgium have appeared in the finals tournament of the FIFA World Cup on 13 occasions, the first being at the first FIFA World Cup in 1930 where they finished in 11th place. The inaugural FIFA World Cup final was officiated by Belgian referee John Langenus. Traditionally, Belgium's greatest rival is the Netherlands. The two countries have met each other twice in the history of the FIFA World Cup, with one win for Belgium (USA 1994) and one tie (France 1998). The team that has played the most
2006 FIFA World Cup qualification and first round elimination in the previous tournament was considered to be due to lack of preparation that the qualifiers could have provided. The final distribution was as follows: The distribution by confederation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup is: UEFA and CAF have a guaranteed number of places, whereas the number of qualifiers from other confederations is dependent on play-offs between AFC's fifth-placed team and CONMEBOL's fifth-placed team, and between CONCACAF's fourth-placed team and OFC's first-placed team. A draw determined the pairings between the four teams involved. After the 2006 FIFA World Cup group stage of 2006 FIFA World