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 points in each group would qualify to the World Cup. The runners up would be ranked. For the sake of fairness, in groups with seven teams, results against the seventh placed team were ignored. The two best ranked runners up would also qualify to the World Cup. The other six runners up were drawn into three home and away knock out matches, winners of those matches also qualifying. Sweden and Poland qualified directly to the World Cup. The other teams had to play off. A draw was held on 14 October 2005 at FIFA headquarters in Zürich to pair each