Liedjes Voetbal Steekspel 1990

This was the eleventh Liedjes Voetbal Steekspel to be held. It took place exactly four years after the previous World Cup in 1986.

European Qualifiers were decided by the format of the Euro 1988 tournament. There are 16 qualifying spots up for grabs in this tournament. Other qualification rounds would be interlocked. Asia and Africa would hold similar style but smaller tournaments where the top 4 of the final stage had a chance at going through to the World Cup. The top 3 automatically qualify from each, but the fourth placers would compete in a playoff to decide the 7th spot in the World Cup. The North American and South American tournaments reflected this qualification method. North America was guaranteed 2 spots, with South America guaranteed 5 spots. The 3rd and 6th spots respectively would play in a playoff to decide the final 8th share spot between them. The final qualifier to the World Cup is the host nation however in this situation, the United Kingdom had four Liedjes teams. Due to the Euros 1988 taking place with all of these countries competing, England, Wales and Scotland all already qualified from there. Northern Ireland was offered the automatic qualification but they declined and it was offered instead to the Republic of Ireland, who accepted.

Unlike the 1986 World Cup, this World Cup saw no noticeable boycotts or protests. All previous boycotting nations returned and this World Cup featured the most participating countries in qualifiers where a large amount of new North American and African teams participated for the first time. the Liedjes membership agreed to hold a conference in the future to discuss a possible reduction of seats awarded to Europe.

won the hosting rights to the 1990 contest in the 1983 vote. The final would be held in the capital city, London. This would be the first country to host the World Cup twice, with the United Kingdom also previously hosting the 1957 tournament. Other bids included:


 * , with the final in Buenos Aires
 * , with the final in Beijing
 * , with the final in Mexico City
 * , with the final in Moscow (this bid was withdrew after the first vote but before the second)

Europe
Following 's surprise success in the previous World Cup, interest immediately increased and old Yugoslav footballers tried to join the national team. A famous Serbo-Slovene striker actually defected from his team of to join Slovenia as he viewed them as the better team. Slovenia kept up their great momentum in the Euro 1988 coming 3rd and doing extremely well in international friendlies. Their best result being a 5 - 1 victory over in early 1989. Other Yugoslav teams were doing decently such as who reached the quarter finals of the Euros only losing to eventual winners, Norway. even saw decent results doing better than Hungary in the Euros but ultimately not qualifying. did worse than usual with players deserting and the manager having a terrible reputation. They still managed to qualify from the group of relegation but ultimately lost the Left Right Division Round only drawing once and not winning. Serbia also faired poorly in international friendlies losing against by 2 goals. This team, by the way, had done well despite being a team for only a couple of years by this point. They even secured qualification for the World Cup in the Euros and did well in friendlies. They actually qualified over other Czechoslovakian successor, the Czech Republic.

was still trying to ride it's success. It came 4th in the Euros and was doing decently well. They hoped for another World Cup victory to assert themselves as the country with the most titles. had been on a sharp decline but still qualified for the World Cup. managed to both win the World Cup and the Euros back to back and was hoping for the triple victory. They signed many new young players and was ambitious. Other nordic countries such as, and  saw major upticks of involvement with younger players and much better potentials. None of these nations qualify for the 1990 World Cup, but new players coming on in the Euros and after are preparing them for a great potential in the future. strived for a great future where they could continuously win semi finals confidently. They aimed for their first World Cup win with an exciting new squad. had been a sharp decline for the previous World Cups but their accomplished striker had just retired leaving a massive black hole. They qualified for the World Cup but many were wondered if this squad could actually perform well. was hoping to build off it's great successes in the Euros and aimed for a full World Cup victory.

Rest of the World
, after their humiliation at their own World Cup, tried to build up a great new squad under a new manager. They aimed for a better result and at least a qualification from the Group Stage if they got into the World Cup itself. had saw a noticeable improvement at the 1986 World Cup and hoped to improve that once again and aimed to qualify over their rivals Australia. saw good results and they aimed to qualify back to back. was very impressed with their previous display and hoped to qualify amid more competition. and hyped up their rivalry more but ultimately their goal was to secure qualification once again. , having been humiliated in the qualifiers for the World Cup in 1986 and wanting to host the 1993 tournament, stepped up it's game massively. Interest in young players increased and they assembled a new potential squad and manager role.

European Championships / Euro 1984 (1984) - 16 countries
see here: Euro 1988


 * automatically qualified for the World Cup

Asian Cup and Qualifiers (1989) - 3.5 countries
49 countries took part in the Asian Qualifiers. All five Soviet central Asian nations took part for the first time. Australia also returned. They are separated into 7 groups of 7 countries. The top of each group will go into a round robin of 7 countries. The top three qualify for the World Cup. The fourth place will go into a tiebreaker with the African Qualifier fourth place. Northern Cyprus; Turkey and Kazakhstan (who both takes part in the European Qualifiers); and several pacific island nations did not appear in the final roster.

Final Round
, and  qualified for the World Cup while  qualified to take part in an African-Asian tiebreaker match where the winner will qualify aswell.

African Qualifiers (1989) - 3.5 countries
24 countries took part in the African Qualifiers. There are 3 groups of 6 countries, with the top two countries from each group qualifying for a final round. The top 3 of this round robin group qualify for the World Cup while the fourth place goes into a tiebreaker match to determine a 7th combined qualifier between the two continents. The tiebreaker is goals scored rather than goal difference in this event.

Group C
The most controversial group. qualifies on a tiebreaker based on goals scored beating out favourites and most supported underdog.

Final Group
The goal score between Guinea and Cameroon were the same, so a rematch game was organised. Guinea won and won a seat to automatic World Cup qualification. Cameroon

African-Asian Tiebreaker Match (1990) - 1 country
represents Africa in the tiebreak. This is the same as the 1986 Tiebreak after a loss to Guinea in the final group of the African qualifiers. They play the who represent Asia.

earns a slot of qualification beating out Cameroon. This continues the pattern of an Asian country winning 1982, then an African in 1986, and now an Asian in 1990.

America Championship and World Cup Qualifiers (1990) - 8 countries
Unlike the previous North American qualifiers, 16 North American nations took part, an increase of 13. It was decided by the leaders of both the North American and South American qualifiers to unite the two small confederations into 7 group stand off, each with 4 countries. The winner of each group would qualify for the World Cup. Each second place would enter a final round to determine the final qualifier to the World Cup. This meant that there was a possibility that no countries from a continent could qualify for the World Cup, and the distribution of countries may be unequal. The majority of South American nations had a higher average Liedjes placement than many of the North American countries and many argued that it was likely no North American nations would qualify out of the 8 spots.

Knockouts (irrelevant to Qualification)
= World Cup 1990 = Matchday 1 are on the following dates: 2nd July 1990, 9th July 1990 and 16th July 1990.

Matchday 2 are on the following dates: 4th July 1990, 11th July 1990 and 18th July 1990.

Matchday 3 are on the following dates: 6th July 1990, 13th July 1990 and 20th July 1990.

Tiebreaker playoffs will be played on 23rd July 1990, 24th July 1990 and 25th July 1990 if any are available.

Group H
Tiebreaker match between and.