2006 FIFA World Cup qualification


The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OFC, and UEFA — 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. In 2001 FIFA ended automatic qualification of the reigning champion, so that 2002 champions Brazil became first to participate in the qualifying tournament. The hosts 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, 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, whilst all of the members of the South American federation competed in a single group. Qualification itself began in January 2004.

Qualified teams

The following 32 teams qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup:
TeamMethod of
qualification		Date of
qualification		Finals
appearance		Consecutive
finals
appearances		Previous best
performance		FIFA
Ranking
at start
of
event
Host6 July 200016th 14Winners 19
AFC Third Round Group 2 Winners8 June 20053rd[|3]Round of 16 18
AFC Third Round Group 1 Winners8 June 20054th[|4]Round of 16 34
AFC Third Round Group [|1] Runners-up8 June 20057th6Fourth Place 29
AFC Third Round Group [|2] Runners-up8 June 20053rd1 Group Stage 23
CONMEBOL Round Robin Runners-up8 June 200514th9Winners 9
UEFA Group 2 Winners3 September 20051st ––45
CONCACAF Fourth Round Winners3 September 20058th5Third Place 5
CONMEBOL Round Robin Winners5 September 200518th18Winners 1
CONCACAF Fourth Round Runners-up7 September 200514th4Quarter-finals 4
CAF Second Round Group 2 Winners8 October 20051st––48
CAF Second Round Group 1 Winners8 October 20051st––61
UEFA Group 6 Winners8 October 200512th3Winners 10
UEFA Group 6 Runners-up8 October 20057th2Third Place 29
CAF Second Round Group 4 Winners8 October 20051st––57
CAF Second Round Group 3 Winners8 October 20051st––32
CAF Second Round Group 5 Winners8 October 20054th3Group Stage 21
UEFA Group 8 Winners8 October 20053rd3Third Place 23
UEFA Group 8 Runners-up8 October 200511th2Runners-up 16
UEFA Group 1 Winners8 October 20058th1 Runners-up 3
UEFA Group 5 Winners8 October 200516th12Winners 13
UEFA Group 3 Winners8 October 20054th2Third Place 7
CONCACAF Fourth Round Third Place8 October 20053rd2Round of 16 26
CONMEBOL Round Robin Third Place8 October 20052nd2Group Stage 39
CONMEBOL Round Robin Fourth Place8 October 20057th3Round of 16 33
UEFA Group 7 Winners12 October 200510th 1 Fourth Place 44
UEFA Group 4 Winners12 October 200512th3Winners 8
UEFA Play-off Winners16 November 20059th 1 Runners-up 2
UEFA Play-off Winners16 November 20058th1 Quarter-finals 35
UEFA Play-off Winners16 November 200512th8Fourth Place 5
CONMEBOL v OFC Play-off Winners16 November 20052nd1 Group Stage 42
AFC v CONCACAF Play-off Winners16 November 20051st––47

1Includes 10 appearances by DFB representing West Germany between 1954 and 1990. Excludes 1 appearance by DVF representing East Germany between 1954 and 1990.
2Participated as a part of Soviet Union between 1930 and 1990.
3Includes appearances by pre-division Yugoslavia, as FIFA considers Serbia and Montenegro as a successor of a team.
4Includes appearances by Czechoslovakia, as FIFA considers Czech Republic as a successor of a team.
13 of the 32 teams subsequently failed to qualify for the 2010 finals: Angola, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Iran, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and Ukraine.

Qualification process

A total of 197 teams entered the qualification process for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, competing for a total of 32 spots in the final tournament. Germany, 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 matches 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:
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.
After the 2006 FIFA World Cup group stage of 2006 FIFA World Cup finals, the percentage of teams from each confederation that passed through to the round of 16 was as follows:

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:
  1. goal difference in all group matches
  2. greater number of goals scored in all group matches
  3. greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams
  4. goal difference in matches between the tied teams
  5. greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams
  6. greater number of away goals scored in matches between the tied teams if only two teams are tied
  7. single play-off at a neutral venue, with two 15-minutes periods of extra time and penalty shoot-out.
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 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 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.
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.

Confederation qualification

AFC

44 Asian teams are affiliated with FIFA, but Cambodia, Philippines, Bhutan and Brunei decided not to take part, and Myanmar 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.
Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 2006 World Cup
Countries that advanced to the [|AFC play-off]

Final positions (Third Round)

Play-off for 5th place (Fourth Round)

'Bahrain advanced to the AFC–CONCACAF play-off on the away goals rule.

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 and the 4 highest-ranking teams in the June 25, 2003 FIFA world rankings. 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.
The African qualifying zone saw 4 out of 5 finals places going to World Cup debutants. 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: 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 FIFA 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.
Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 2006 World Cup
Countries that advanced to the [|AFC-CONCACAF play-offs]

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 2006 FIFA World Cup. The fifth ranked team would have to play-off against the best team from Oceania, with the winner of this play-off also qualifying. For the first time, Brazil, 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. 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 competing for 13 places in the World Cup. Germany, 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, 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. For the sake of fairness, in groups with seven teams, 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.

Final positions (First Round)

Play-offs

Sweden and Poland qualified directly to the World Cup. The other teams had to play off.
TeamPldWDLGFGAGDPts
10802304+2624
10802279+1824
107032311+1221
10550193+1620
10460187+1118
10532127+518
10451177+1017
10451139+417

A draw was held on 14 October 2005 at FIFA headquarters in Zürich 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

Included goals in the Inter-confederation play-offs.
;14 goals
;12 goals
;11 goals
;10 goals
;9 goals
;8 goals