Since 2006, the host nation has automatically drawn to Group A.

It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea and Japan, with its final match hosted by Japan at International Stadium in Yokohama.

China, Ecuador, Senegal and Slovenia made their World Cup debuts.

South Korea controversially managed to reach the semi-finals, beating Portugal, Italy and Spain en route, thus becoming the first and only team from outside Europe and the Americas to reach the last four of a World Cup.

The victory qualified Brazil for the 2003 and subsequently 2005 FIFA Confederations Cups, its fourth and fifth Confederations Cup appearance in a row.

In the third place play-off match against South Korea, Turkey won 32, taking third place in only their second ever FIFA World Cup, and scored the fastest goal in the FIFA World Cup history (10.8 seconds after kick-off).

Initially, South Korea, Japan and Mexico presented three rival bids.

South Koreas entry into the race was seen by some as a response to the bid of political and sporting rival Japan.

FIFA leaders were split on whom to favor as host as politics within the world governing body held sway.

With Mexico regarded as a long shot, the battle to host the tournament came down to Japan and South Korea.

The two Asian rivals went on a massive and expensive PR blitz around the world, prompting Sultan Ahmad Shah, the head of the Asian Football Confederation, to step in.

FIFA boss Joao Havelange had long backed the Japanese bid, 4 but his rival in FIFA, UEFA chief Lennart Johansson, sought to undermine Havelanges plans.

UEFA and the AFC viewed cohosting between the two Asian rivals as the best option.

Japan and South Korea were finally faced with a choice of having no World Cup or a shared World Cup and they reluctantly chose to go along with co-hosting.

South Korea and Japan were chosen unanimously as co-hosts in preference to Mexico.

This was the first World Cup to be hosted by more than one country, the second being the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

This is also the first ever World Cup to be hosted in Asia, the other being the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup twenty years later.

The general secretary of South Koreas bidding committee, Song Young-shik, stated that FIFA was interested in staging some matches in North Korea in order to aid Korean reunification, but it was ruled out.

The only other countries to have been awarded a World Cup without previously having competed in a final tournament are Italy in 1934 and Qatar in 2022 (Uruguay hosted the first World Cup in 1930 so there was no prior tournament; they were defending Olympic champions from 1928).

The qualification process began with the preliminary draw held in Tokyo on 7 December 1999.

Defending champions France and co-hosts South Korea and Japan qualified automatically and did not have to play any qualification matches.

This was the final World Cup in which the defending champions qualified automatically.

The remaining two places were decided by playoffs between AFC and UEFA and between CONMEBOL and OFC (Oceania).

Four nations qualified for the finals for the first time: China, Ecuador, Senegal and Slovenia.

Sweden, Russia and the Republic of Ireland also returned after missing the 1998 World Cup.

Netherlands, three-time participants in the 1990s Romania and Colombia, and Bulgaria, Morocco and Norway, who had participated in the previous two finals tournaments, alongside Iran which participated in the latest edition, failed to qualify, while South Korea set a record by appearing in a fifth successive finals tournament, the first nation from outside Europe or the Americas to achieve this feat.

The highest ranked team not to qualify was Colombia (ranked 4th), while the lowest ranked team that did qualify was China PR (ranked 50th).

Groups AD played all their matches in South Korea and Groups EH played all their matches in Japan.

The stadiums in Daegu, Suwon, Yokohama and Saitama all hosted 4 matches each, while the other 16 stadiums hosted 3 matches each.

Notably, no matches were played in Tokyo, making it the second (after Bonn in 1974) capital of a host country not to have a World Cup venue.

Questionable decisions in the match between Italy and South Korea resulted in 400,000 complaints, and featured in ESPNs 10 most fabled World Cup controversies.

Pot B contained the remaining 11 European sides; Pot C contained five unseeded qualifiers from CONMEBOL and AFC.

Pot D contained unseeded sides from the CONCACAF region and Africa.

This was the last FIFA World Cup with the defending champion in Group A.

Fifa World Cup 2002 Patch