List of undefeated association football clubs

This page lists all association football national teams which managed to remain undefeated in either a FIFA World Cup main tournament, the qualifying process for that tournament, or both.

Fixtures decided by a penalty shootout are counted as draws and not as defeats. The tables only include teams which played at least one match in the particular final or qualifying tournament. They do not include teams which qualified automatically or by walkover, or teams which withdrew or were disqualified without playing any matches.

All but four World Cup winning teams were unbeaten in the finals. The four teams that won the World Cup despite losing a game in the finals were: West Germany in 1954 and again in 1974; Argentina in 1978; and Spain in 2010.

Another part of the teams listed below were eliminated despite not losing any games in the finals, or failed to qualify despite not losing any qualifying games. They exited the competition by various means: withdrawal; inferior points total or goal difference within a group; drawing of lots, away goals, or penalty shootout.

General statistics

Brazil have remained unbeaten in a total of seven World Cup final tournaments, more than any other team, including all five tournaments where they triumphed as world champions. Italy are a close second with six, and England are third with three. No other nation has achieved this more than twice.

Germany (including West Germany) have had a record eleven unbeaten World Cup qualifying campaigns. In fact the German national team has lost only two World Cup qualifying games in its history: against Portugal in 1985, and against England in 2001.

A number of teams have managed not to record any losses during an entire FIFA World Cup cycle (qualifying and final tournaments).

• Italy in 1934 and 1998; Brazil in 1958, 1970, 1978 and 1986; West Germany in 1990; Spain in 2002; and France in 2006 all remained unbeaten during both the qualification and the finals (in 1970 Brazil actually did not record any draws either, managing to win every single match en route to the title).
• Uruguay in 1930; Italy in 1938 and 1990; Brazil in 1962; England in 1966; Mexico in 1986; and France in 1998 all did not have to go through qualifying tournaments, and did not lose any games in the finals (Uruguay in 1930 and Italy in 1938 did not draw any games either).
• Uruguay in 1950 qualified without playing any matches due to the withdrawal of their opponents, and did not lose any games in the finals.
• Several teams remained undefeated during a qualifying campaign but nevertheless did not appear in the subsequent final tournament. Each of Morocco and Tunisia has had this fate twice. For others, see the tables below.

Legend to the tables

• The Result column indicates what stage the team reached in the particular final tournament: , , , , , , , , .
• Other columns: , , , , , .
• The Lost to column indicates what opponent progressed at the expense of the team in question.

By tournament

1930

1934

1938

1950

1954

1958

1962

1966

1970

1974

1978

1982

1986

1990

1994

1998

2002

2006

2010

2014

External links

• Previous FIFA World Cups, FIFA
• World Cup 1930-2006, Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation