FIFA Confederations Cup to participate in the tournament. Germany did so twice, in 1997 (replaced by Euro 1996 runners-up Czech Republic) and in 2003 when Germany were awarded a place as the 2002 World Cup runners-up, replaced by the third-placed team Turkey. World champions France declined a place in the 1999 Confederations Cup, replaced by Brazil, the 1998 World Cup runners-up. Italy, UEFA Euro 2000 runners up, declined their place in the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup. An earlier tournament that invited former World Cup winners, the Mundialito, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the first World Cup. The Artemio Franchi Trophy, contested in 1985
1998 FIFA World Cup seeding 1998 FIFA World Cup seeding To calculate the seeding for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, FIFA used the FIFA World Rankings in combination with performances of national teams in the three previous World Cups. For the ranking part, points were allocated on the basis of 32 for the best achieving of the 32 qualifiers for 1998 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: The seedings table uses these points obtained from the 1986 FIFA World Cup, 1990 FIFA World