The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

confederations A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa),

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

(North, Central America and Caribbean),

CONMEBOL CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

(South America), OFC (Oceania), and

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

(Europe) – was allocated a certain number of the 32 places at the tournament. A total of 197 teams entered the qualification process for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

. In 2001 FIFA ended automatic qualification of the reigning champion, so that

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

champions

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

became first to participate in the qualifying tournament. The hosts (

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

) retained their automatic spot. The original distribution of places between the six confederations called for Oceania to be given one full spot in the final 32; this idea was seen as virtually guaranteeing a place in the finals to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, by far the strongest footballing nation in the region. This decision was reconsidered in June 2003 and the previous distribution of places between Oceania and South America was restored. The draw for five of the six qualification tournaments took place on 5 December 2003 in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, whilst all of the members of the South American federation (

) competed in a single group. Qualification itself began in September 2003.

Qualified teams

The following 32 teams qualified for the

: ¹Includes 10 appearances by ''DFB'' representing West Germany between 1954 and 1990. Excludes 1 appearance by ''DVF'' representing

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

between 1954 and 1990. ³Includes appearances by pre-division

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

, as FIFA considers Serbia and Montenegro as a successor of a team. ⁴Includes appearances by

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, as FIFA considers both the Czech Republic and Slovakia as a successor of a team.

Qualification process

A total of 197 teams entered the qualification process for the

, competing for a total of 32 spots in the final tournament.

, as the host, qualified automatically, leaving 31 spots open for competition. Starting with these qualifiers, the defending champion (

) was not granted automatic qualification for the first time. FIFA announced the decision in December 2001 at the draw for the 2002 Finals Tournament. The official reason was that the

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

es to which previous champions were restricted provided inferior preparation to the competitive qualification matches others would have played. Media also noted that the change released an extra place for the contentious distribution of places by confederation. The final distribution was as follows: The distribution by confederation for the 2006 FIFA World Cup was: * AFC (Asia): 4 or 5 places * CAF (Africa): 5 places *

(North, Central American and Caribbean): 3 or 4 places *

(South America): 4 or 5 places * OFC (Oceania): 0 or 1 place(s) *

(Europe): 13 places (+ Germany qualified automatically as host nation for a total of 14 places) UEFA and CAF have a guaranteed number of places, whereas the number of qualifiers from other confederations is dependent on play-offs between AFC's fifth-placed team and CONMEBOL's fifth-placed team, and between CONCACAF's fourth-placed team and OFC's first-placed team. A draw determined the pairings between the four teams involved.

Summary of qualification

Tiebreakers

For FIFA World Cup qualifying stages using a league format, the method used for separating teams level on points is the same for all Confederations. The rules for separating teams level on points are decided by FIFA and can be found in article 18 part 6d to 6g of the FIFA Regulations 2006 World Cup Germany If teams are even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams will be ranked by: # greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned # goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned # greatest number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned # goal difference in all group matches # greatest number of goals scored in all group matches # a play-off on neutral ground. If, after 90 minutes, this match ends in a draw, extra time of twice 15 minutes will be played. If the score is level after extra time, penalty kicks will be taken to determine the winner. For FIFA World Cup qualifying stages using a home-and-away knockout format, the team that has the higher aggregate score over the two legs progresses to the next round. In the event that aggregate scores finish level, the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

is applied, i.e. the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs progresses. If away goals are also equal, then thirty minutes of

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

are played, divided into two fifteen-minutes halves. The away goals rule is again applied after extra time, i.e. if there are goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score is still level, the visiting team qualifies by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals are scored during extra time, the tie is decided by

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. This is a change from the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where total goal difference was the first tiebreaker. A total of 194 teams played at least one qualifying match. A total of 847 qualifying matches were played, and 2464 goals were scored (an average of 2.91 per match).

Confederation qualification

AFC

44 Asian teams are affiliated with

, but

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

and

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

decided not to take part, and

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

was banned from the competition, so a total of 39 teams took part, competing for 4.5 places in the World Cup. The qualification was composed of three rounds. *First Round: The 14 last ranked teams according to FIFA were paired 2-by-2 and played home-and-away knock-out matches. *Second Round: The 7 winners joined the other 25 teams where those 32 teams were divided in 8 groups of four teams each. The teams in each group would play against each other home-and-away, and the team with most points in each group would advance to the Third Round. *Third Round: The 8 remaining teams were divided in two groups of 4 teams each, that would again play against each other in a home-and-away basis. The two teams with most points in each group would qualify to the World Cup. The two third placed teams would play-off against each other home-and-away. Winner of this play-off would play against the fourth placed team in the final round of

in an intercontinental play-off for a place in the World Cup.

Final positions (third round)

Play-off for 5th place (fourth round)

Bahrain advanced to the AFC–CONCACAF play-off on the

CAF

The qualification was composed of two Rounds. 9 teams entered the competition directly on the second round: the 5 teams that qualified for the 2002 World Cup Finals (

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, and

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

) and the 4 highest-ranking teams in the June 25, 2003

world rankings ( Congo DR,

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, and

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

). The other 42 teams were paired 2-by-2 and played knock-out matches home-and-away. The 21 winners would advance to the second round. In the second round, the 30 teams were divided in 5 groups of 6 teams each. Teams in each group would play against each other in a home-and-away basis. The team with most points in each group would qualify to the World Cup. The competition also constituted the qualification competition for the 2006 African Nations Cup with the top three nations of each group qualifying (except for Egypt, which qualifies as the host nation, the fourth nation in Egypt's group qualifying in Egypt's place). The African qualifying zone saw 4 out of 5 finals places going to World Cup debutants (Angola, Togo, Ivory Coast and Ghana). Nigeria missed out on a fourth consecutive finals appearance while Cameroon did not reach their fifth consecutive finals. The African zone also featured a group of death – Group 3 – which brought together Africa's most frequent World Cup qualifier Cameroon with the two eventual finalists of the

2006 Africa Cup of Nations The 2006 Africa Cup of Nations was the 25th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa. It was hosted by Egypt, from 20 January to 10 February. Just like in 2004, the field of sixteen teams was split int ...

: Egypt and the Ivory Coast.

Final positions (second round)

CONCACAF

The qualification process was divided in three stages. In the first stage, the 34 teams were divided in 10 groups of three teams each and two groups of two teams each. Groups with three teams had two rounds, with the best ranked team according to

in each group entering the competition in the second round. In each group, teams were paired 2-by-2 and played home-and-away matches. The 12 winners of the first stage advanced to the second stage, where they were divided into three groups of four teams each. Teams in each group would play against each other home-and-away, and the two teams with most points in each group would advance to the final round. In the third stage, the six teams were put in a single group, and played against each other home-and-away. The three teams with most points qualified to the World Cup. The fourth placed team advanced to the AFC–CONCACAF play-off against the winner of a play-off between third placed teams in the Third Round of

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Final positions (fourth round)

CONMEBOL

10 teams took part, all in a single group. The rules were very simple: the teams would play against each other in a home-and-away basis, with the four teams with most points qualifying to the

. The fifth ranked team would have to play-off against the best team from

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

, with the winner of this play-off also qualifying. For the first time,

, the defending champion, was required to go through qualification and was not automatically qualified for the tournament.

Final positions

OFC

12 teams took part, competing for a place in the intercontinental play-off against the fifth-placed team from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. The winner of this play-off qualified for the World Cup.

Final positions (second round)

In the Second round, the six teams were put in a single group, and played against each other once. The two teams with most points advanced to a play-off, and played against each other home and away. The winner of this play-off advanced to the intercontinental play-off.

Final round

Australia and the Solomon Islands progressed to the final stage.

UEFA

A total of 51 teams took part, divided in 8 groups (five groups of six teams each and three groups of seven teams each) competing for 13 places in the World Cup.

, the hosts, were already qualified, for a total of 14 European places in the tournament. The qualifying process started on 18 August 2004, over a month after the end of

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

, and ended on 16 November 2005. The teams in each group would play against each other in a home and away basis. The team with most points in each group would qualify to the World Cup. The runners up would be ranked. As some groups had seven teams and others had six, results against the seventh placed team were ignored. The two best ranked runners up would also qualify to the World Cup. The other six runners up were drawn into three home and away knock out matches, winners of those matches also qualifying.

Play-offs

Poland and Sweden qualified directly to the World Cup. The other teams had to play in the playoffs. A draw was held on 14 October 2005 at

headquarters in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

to pair each team from Pot 1 with a team from Pot 2. A second draw at the same time and location determined the order of the fixtures.

Inter-confederation play-offs

There were two scheduled inter-confederation playoffs to determine the final two qualification spots to the finals. The first legs were played on 12 November 2005, and the second legs were played on 16 November 2005.

CONCACAF v AFC

CONMEBOL v OFC

Withdrawals

* * *

Did not enter

* * * * * * * *

Excluded

* (for refusing to play a qualifier in Iran during 2002 qualifying)

Top goalscorers

Below are goalscorer lists for all confederations and the inter-confederation play-offs: * AFC * CAF *

* OFC *

* Inter-confederation play-offs

References

External links

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
at RSSSF.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2006 Fifa World Cup Qualification

Qualification Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

FIFA World Cup qualification