Bolivia at the FIFA World Cup

This is a record of Bolivia's results at the FIFA World Cup.

The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.

The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.

Bolivia have qualified for the Finals on three occasions, in 1930, 1950 and 1994. They have played in six matches at the Finals, but have lost five and drawn one, with their only goal coming against Spain in 1994.

Record at the FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup record										FIFA World Cup Qualification record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1930	Group stage	12th	2	0	0	2	0	8		Qualified as invitees
1934	Did not enter									Declined participation
1938
1950	Group stage	13th	1	0	0	1	0	8		Qualified automatically
1954	Did not enter									Declined participation
1958	Did not qualify									4	2	0	2	6	6
1962										2	0	1	1	2	3
1966										4	1	0	3	4	9
1970										4	2	0	2	5	6
1974										4	0	0	4	1	11
1978										8	3	1	4	10	25
1982										4	1	0	3	5	6
1986										4	0	2	2	2	7
1990										4	3	0	1	6	5
1994	Group stage	21st	3	0	1	2	1	4		8	5	1	2	22	11
1998	Did not qualify									16	4	5	7	18	21
2002										18	4	6	8	21	33
2006										18	4	2	12	20	37
2010										18	4	3	11	22	36
2014										16	2	6	8	17	30
2018										18	4	2	12	16	38
2022	To be determined									To be determined
2026
Total	Group stage	3/23	6	0	1	5	1	20		150	39	29	82	177	284

*Denotes draws including knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

By match

World Cup	Round	Opponent	Score	Result	Venue	Scorers
1930	Group stage	Yugoslavia	0–4	L	Montevideo	—
		Brazil	0–4	L	Montevideo	—
1950	Group stage	Uruguay	0–8	L	Belo Horizonte	—
1994	Group stage	Germany	0–1	L	Chicago	—
		South Korea	0–0	D	Foxborough	—
		Spain	1–3	L	Chicago	E. Sánchez

Record by opponent

FIFA World Cup matches (by team)
Opponent	Wins	Draws	Losses	Total	Goals scored	Goals conceded
Brazil	0	0	1	1	0	4
Germany	0	0	1	1	0	1
South Korea	0	1	0	1	0	0
Spain	0	0	1	1	1	3
Uruguay	0	0	1	1	0	8
Yugoslavia	0	0	1	1	0	4

Record players

Eight players have been fielded in all of Bolivia's group matches in 1994, making them record World Cup players for their country. In the 1930 and 1950 editions, Bolivia was drawn into groups with less than four teams, allowing those years' squads to earn less caps.

No.	Name	Matches	World Cups
1	Carlos Borja	3	1994
	Milton Melgar	3	1994
	William Ramallo	3	1994
	Miguel Rimba	3	1994
	Erwin Sánchez	3	1994
	Marco Sandy	3	1994
	Vladimir Soria	3	1994
	Carlos Trucco	3	1994

Top goalscorers

The only Bolivian goal at a FIFA World Cup was scored by Erwin Sánchez during their 1-3 defeat against Spain in 1994. Bolivia had not scored in their previous five World Cup matches.

External links

• Profile at FIFA.com