Listed below are the dates and results for the 1982 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for the European zone (UEFA). For an overview of the qualification rounds, see the article 1982 FIFA World Cup qualification.

A total of 32 UEFA teams entered the qualifying competition. Moreover, Israel were also assigned to the European zone despite not being a UEFA member. The European zone was allocated 14 places (out of 24) in the final tournament. Spain, the hosts, qualified automatically, leaving 13 spots open for competition between 33 teams.

The 33 teams were divided into 7 groups. The teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The number of teams and spots for each group were as follows:

• Groups 1 to 6 had 5 teams each. The group winners and runners-up would qualify.
• Group 7 had 3 teams. The group winner would qualify.

Draw

The draw for the qualifying groups took place in the Zürichhorn Casino in Zürich, Switzerland on 14 October 1979. During the draw procedure, the 33 entrants were drawn into the 7 qualifying groups from the five pots of seeds, which had been announced ten days prior. As Group 7 only featured 3 teams (one team from Pot A, one team from Pot C and one team from Pot E), only the group winner of this group would qualify.

Summary

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	Group 6	Group 7
West Germany	Belgium	Soviet Union	Hungary	Yugoslavia	Scotland	Poland
Austria	France	Czechoslovakia	England	Italy	Northern Ireland	East Germany
Bulgaria Albania Finland	Republic of Ireland Netherlands Cyprus	Wales Iceland Turkey	Romania Switzerland Norway	Denmark Greece Luxembourg	Sweden Portugal Israel	Malta

Groups

Group 1

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	West Germany	16	8	8	0	0	33	3	+30
2	Austria	11	8	5	1	2	16	6	+10
3	Bulgaria	9	8	4	1	3	11	10	+1
4	Albania	2	8	1	0	7	4	22	−18
5	Finland	2	8	1	0	7	4	27	−23

West Germany and Austria qualified.

Group 2

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Belgium	11	8	5	1	2	12	9	+3
2	France	10	8	5	0	3	20	8	+12
3	Republic of Ireland	10	8	4	2	2	17	11	+6
4	Netherlands	9	8	4	1	3	11	7	+4
5	Cyprus	0	8	0	0	8	4	29	−25

Belgium and France qualified.

Group 3

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Soviet Union	14	8	6	2	0	20	2	+18
2	Czechoslovakia	10	8	4	2	2	15	6	+9
3	Wales	10	8	4	2	2	12	7	+5
4	Iceland	6	8	2	2	4	10	21	−11
5	Turkey	0	8	0	0	8	1	22	−21

Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia qualified.

Group 4

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Hungary	10	8	4	2	2	13	8	+5
2	England	9	8	4	1	3	13	8	+5
3	Romania	8	8	2	4	2	5	5	0
4	Switzerland	7	8	2	3	3	9	12	−3
5	Norway	6	8	2	2	4	8	15	−7

Hungary and England qualified.

Group 5

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Yugoslavia	13	8	6	1	1	22	7	+15
2	Italy	12	8	5	2	1	12	5	+7
3	Denmark	8	8	4	0	4	14	11	+3
4	Greece	7	8	3	1	4	10	13	−3
5	Luxembourg	0	8	0	0	8	1	23	−22

Yugoslavia and Italy qualified.

Group 6

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Scotland	11	8	4	3	1	9	4	+5
2	Northern Ireland	9	8	3	3	2	6	3	+3
3	Sweden	8	8	3	2	3	7	8	−1
4	Portugal	7	8	3	1	4	8	11	−3
5	Israel	5	8	1	3	4	6	10	−4

Scotland and Northern Ireland qualified.

Group 7

Rank	Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Poland	8	4	4	0	0	12	2	+10
2	East Germany	4	4	2	0	2	9	6	+3
3	Malta	0	4	0	0	4	2	15	−13

Poland qualified.

Goalscorers

9 goals

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal