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.[1]

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:

• Teams qualified for the knockout stages were ranked by their overall performance and received between 32 points (World Cup winner) and 17 points (the losing team in the Round of 16 with the worst overall performance).
• Teams eliminated in the group stage were ranked by their performance. The top half received 9 points, the rest 8 points.

The seedings table uses these points obtained from the 1986 FIFA World Cup, 1990 FIFA World Cup and the 1994 FIFA World Cup averaged in a 1:2:3 ratio respectively, added to the average number of points derived from the World Rankings at three given dates (at ratio 1:1:1), December 1995, December 1996, and November 1997.[2] All totals are rounded.

Seed	Country	1. FIFA World Cup Finals							2. FIFA World Rankings							Total Points
		Mexico 1986 (16.7%)		Italy 1990 (33.3%)		USA 1994 (50%)		Avg. Points	Dec 1995 (33.3%)		Dec 1996 (33.3%)		Nov 1997 (33.3%)		Avg. Points
		Rk	Pt.	Rk	Pt.	Rk	Pt.		Rk	Pt.	Rk	Pt.	Rk	Pt.
1	Germany	2	31	1	32	5	28	30	2	31	2	31	2	31	31	61
2	Brazil	5	28	9	24	1	32	28	1	32	1	32	1	32	32	60
3	Italy	12	21	3	30	2	31	29	3	30	10	25	10	24	26	56
4	Spain	7	26	10	23	8	25	25	4	29	8	27	3	30	29	52
5	Argentina	1	32	2	31	10	23	27	7	27	22	16	19	17	20	49
6	Romania	-	0	12	21	6	27	21	11	23	16	20	5	29	24	44
7	Netherlands	-	0	15	18	7	26	19	6	28	9	26	12	22	25	43
9	Mexico	6	27	-	0	13	20	15	12	22	11	24	11	23	23	36
10	Bulgaria	15	18	-	0	4	29	18	17	20	15	21	24	13	18	35
11	England	8	25	4	29	-	0	14	21	18	12	23	6	28	23	35
12	Belgium	4	29	11	22	11	22	23	24	16	42	6	41	4	9	35
13	Colombia	-	0	14	19	19	9	11	15	21	4	29	9	25	25	33
8	France	3	30	-	0	-	0	5	8	26	3	30	7	27	28	28
14	United States	-	0	23	8	14	19	12	19	19	18	19	29	11	16	28
15	Denmark	9	24	-	0	-	0	4	9	25	6	28	8	26	26	26
16	Norway	-	0	-	0	17	9	5	10	24	14	22	14	21	22	23
17	Morocco	11	22	-	0	23	8	8	38	10	27	12	16	20	14	20
18	Cameroon	-	0	7	26	22	8	13	37	11	56	3	51	2	5	19
19	Nigeria	-	0	-	0	9	24	12	27	14	63	2	71	1	6	19
20	Saudi Arabia	-	0	-	0	12	21	11	54	5	37	8	34	8	7	18
21	FR Yugoslavia	-	0	5	28	-	0	9	68	2	55	4	22	15	7	17
22	South Korea	20	9	22	8	20	9	9	46	6	44	5	31	9	7	16
23	Scotland	19	9	20	9	-	0	5	26	15	29	11	36	6	11	14
24	Japan	-	0	-	0	-	0	0	31	13	21	17	18	18	16	13
25	Tunisia	-	0	-	0	-	0	0	22	17	23	15	23	14	15	12
26	Chile	-	0	-	0	-	0	0	36	12	26	13	17	19	15	12
27	Austria	-	0	18	9	-	0	3	39	9	34	9	26	12	10	12
28	Croatia	-	0	-	0	-	0	0	41	7	24	14	21	16	12	10
29	Paraguay	13	20	-	0	-	0	3	64	3	38	7	30	10	7	9
30	South Africa	-	0	-	0	-	0	0	40	8	19	18	35	7	11	9
31	Jamaica	-	0	-	0	-	0	0	56	4	32	10	39	5	6	5
32	Iran	-	0	-	0	-	0	0	108	1	83	1	50	3	2	1
Seed	Country	Rk	Pt.	Rk	Pt.	Rk	Pt.	Avg. Points (60%)	Rk	Pt.	Rk	Pt.	Rk	Pt.	Avg. Points (40%)	Total Points
		Mexico 1986 (16.7%)		Italy 1990 (33.3%)		USA 1994 (50%)			Dec 1995 (33.3%)		Dec 1996 (33.3%)		Nov 1997 (33.3%)
		1. FIFA World Cup Finals							2. FIFA World Rankings

France were seeded as hosts, Brazil as defending champions. The other seeds were: Germany, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Romania and the Netherlands.