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2006 FIFA World Cup qualification

Tournament details
Dates	6 September 2003 – 16 November 2005
Teams	197 (from 6 confederations)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	847
Goals scored	2,464 (2.91 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Jared Borgetti (14 goals)
← 2002 2010 →

The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oceania), and UEFA (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. Due to France's abysmal campaign as defending champion in 2002, for the first time ever, the defending champion (Brazil) did not qualify automatically. The hosts (Germany) retained their automatic spot. In 1934, the defending champions (Uruguay) declined to participate and the hosts (Italy) had to qualify, but in the tournaments between 1938 and 2002 (inclusive), the hosts and the defending champions had automatic berths.

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 (CONMEBOL) competed in a single group. Qualification itself began in January 2004.

Qualified teams

  Country qualified for World Cup

  Country failed to qualify

  Country did not enter World Cup

  Country not a FIFA member

The following 32 teams qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup:

Team	Method of qualification	Date of qualification	Finals appearance	Consecutive finals appearances	Previous best performance	FIFA Ranking at start of event[1]
Germany	Host	6 July 2000	16th (1)	14	Winners (1954, 1974, 1990)	19
Japan	AFC Third Round Group 2 Winners	8 June 2005	3rd	3	Round of 16 (2002)	18
Saudi Arabia	AFC Third Round Group 1 Winners	8 June 2005	4th	4	Round of 16 (1994)	34
South Korea	AFC Third Round Group 1 Runners-up	8 June 2005	7th	6	Fourth Place (2002)	29
Iran	AFC Third Round Group 2 Runners-up	8 June 2005	3rd	1 (Last: 1998)	Group Stage (1978, 1998)	23
Argentina	CONMEBOL Round Robin Runners-up	8 June 2005	14th	9	Winners (1978, 1986)	9
Ukraine	UEFA Group 2 Winners	3 September 2005	1st (2)	–	–	45
United States	CONCACAF Fourth Round Winners	3 September 2005	8th	5	Third Place (1930)	5
Brazil	CONMEBOL Round Robin Winners	5 September 2005	18th	18	Winners (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002)	1
Mexico	CONCACAF Fourth Round Runners-up	7 September 2005	14th	4	Quarter-finals (1970, 1986)	4
Ghana	CAF Second Round Group 2 Winners	8 October 2005	1st	–	–	48
Togo	CAF Second Round Group 1 Winners	8 October 2005	1st	–	–	61
England	UEFA Group 6 Winners	8 October 2005	12th	3	Winners (1966)	10
Poland	UEFA Group 6 Runners-up	8 October 2005	7th	2	Third Place (1974, 1982)	29
Angola	CAF Second Round Group 4 Winners	8 October 2005	1st	–	–	57
Ivory Coast	CAF Second Round Group 3 Winners	8 October 2005	1st	–	–	32
Tunisia	CAF Second Round Group 5 Winners	8 October 2005	4th	3	Group Stage (1978, 1998, 2002)	21
Croatia	UEFA Group 8 Winners	8 October 2005	3rd	3	Third Place (1998)	23
Sweden	UEFA Group 8 Runners-up	8 October 2005	11th	2	Runners-up (1958)	16
Netherlands	UEFA Group 1 Winners	8 October 2005	8th	1 (Last: 1998)	Runners-up (1974, 1978)	3
Italy	UEFA Group 5 Winners	8 October 2005	16th	12	Winners (1934, 1938, 1982)	13
Portugal	UEFA Group 3 Winners	8 October 2005	4th	2	Third Place (1966)	7
Costa Rica	CONCACAF Fourth Round Third Place	8 October 2005	3rd	2	Round of 16 (1990)	26
Ecuador	CONMEBOL Round Robin Third Place	8 October 2005	2nd	2	Group Stage (2002)	39
Paraguay	CONMEBOL Round Robin Fourth Place	8 October 2005	7th	3	Round of 16 (1986, 1998, 2002)	33
Serbia and Montenegro	UEFA Group 7 Winners	12 October 2005	10th (3)	1 (Last: 1998)	Fourth Place (1930, 1962)	44
France	UEFA Group 4 Winners	12 October 2005	12th	3	Winners (1998)	8
Czech Republic	UEFA Play-off Winners	16 November 2005	9th (4)	1 (Last: 1990)	Runners-up (1934, 1962)	2
Switzerland	UEFA Play-off Winners	16 November 2005	8th	1 (Last: 1994)	Quarter-finals (1934, 1938, 1954)	35
Spain	UEFA Play-off Winners	16 November 2005	12th	8	Fourth Place (1950)	5
Australia	CONMEBOL v OFC Play-off Winners	16 November 2005	2nd	1 (Last: 1974)	Group Stage (1974)	42
Trinidad and Tobago	AFC v CONCACAF Play-off Winners	16 November 2005	1st	–	–	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 (Brazil) was not granted automatic qualification for the first time, as France's disappointing performance and first round elimination in the previous tournament was considered to be due to lack of preparation that the qualifiers could have provided.

The final distribution was as follows:

The distribution by confederation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup is:^[2]

• 
  AFC (Asia): 4 or 5 places


• 
  CAF (Africa): 5 places


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


• 
  CONMEBOL (South America): 4 or 5 places


• 
  OFC (Oceania): 0 or 1 place(s)


• 
  UEFA (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.

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:

• 
  AFC (Asia): 0% (0 of 4 places)


• 
  CAF (Africa): 20% (1 of 5 places)


• 
  CONCACAF (North, Central American and Caribbean): 25% (1 of 4 places)


• 
  CONMEBOL (South America): 75% (3 of 4 places)


• 
  OFC (Oceania): 100% (1 of 1 places)


• 
  UEFA (Europe): 77% (10 of 14 places)

Summary of qualification

Confederation	Teams started	Teams that secured qualification	Teams that were eliminated	Total places in finals	Qualifying start date	Qualifying end date
AFC	39	4	36	4	19 November 2003	16 November 2005
CAF	51	5	46	5	10 October 2003	8 October 2005
CONCACAF	34	4	30	4	18 February 2004	16 November 2005
CONMEBOL	10	5	6	4	6 September 2003	20 November 2005
OFC	12	1	11	1	10 May 2004	16 November 2005
UEFA	51	14	38	14	18 August 2004	16 November 2005
Total	197+1	31+1	166	31+1	6 September 2003	16 November 2005

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 (an average of 2.91 per match).

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.

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

Final positions (Third Round)

Group 1	Group 2
Team Pld Pts  Saudi Arabia 6 14  South Korea 6 10  Uzbekistan 6 5  Kuwait 6 4	Team Pld Pts  Japan 6 15  Iran 6 13  Bahrain 6 4  North Korea 6 3

Play-off for 5th place (Fourth Round)

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Uzbekistan	1–1 (a)	Bahrain	1–1	0–0

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 (Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia) and the 4 highest-ranking teams in the June 25, 2003 FIFA world rankings (Congo DR, Ivory Coast, Egypt, and Morocco). 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: Egypt and the Ivory Coast.

Final positions (Second Round)

	Group 1	Group 2	Group 3
	Team Pld Pts  Togo 10 23  Senegal 10 21  Zambia 10 19  Congo 10 10  Mali 10 8  Liberia 10 4	Team Pld Pts  Ghana 10 21  DR Congo 10 16  South Africa 10 16  Burkina Faso 10 13  Cape Verde 10 10  Uganda 10 8	Team Pld Pts  Ivory Coast 10 22  Cameroon 10 21  Egypt 10 17  Libya 10 12  Sudan 10 6  Benin 10 5
	Group 4	Group 5
	Team Pld Pts  Angola 10 21  Nigeria 10 21  Zimbabwe 10 15  Gabon 10 10  Algeria 10 8  Rwanda 10 5	Team Pld Pts  Tunisia 10 21  Morocco 10 20  Guinea 10 17  Kenya 10 10  Botswana 10 9  Malawi 10 6

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.

Final positions (Fourth Round)

Team Pld Pts  United States 10 22  Mexico 10 22  Costa Rica 10 16  Trinidad and Tobago 10 13  Guatemala 10 11  Panama 10 2

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

Team v t e Pld Pts  Brazil 18 34  Argentina 18 34  Ecuador 18 28  Paraguay 18 28  Uruguay 18 25  Colombia 18 24  Chile 18 22  Venezuela 18 18  Peru 18 18  Bolivia 18 14

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.

Team v t e Pld Pts  Australia 5 13  Solomon Islands 5 10  New Zealand 5 9  Fiji 5 4  Tahiti 5 4  Vanuatu 5 3

Final round

Australia and the Solomon Islands progressed to the final stage.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Australia	9–1	Solomon Islands	7–0	2–1

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. 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)

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4
Team Pld Pts  Netherlands 12 32  Czech Republic 12 27  Romania 12 25  Finland 12 16  Macedonia 12 9  Armenia 12 7  Andorra 12 5	Team Pld Pts  Ukraine 12 25  Turkey 12 23  Denmark 12 22  Greece 12 21  Albania 12 13  Georgia 12 10  Kazakhstan 12 1	Team Pld Pts  Portugal 12 30  Slovakia 12 23  Russia 12 23  Estonia 12 17  Latvia 12 15  Liechtenstein 12 8  Luxembourg 12 0	Team Pld Pts  France 10 20   Switzerland 10 18  Israel 10 18  Republic of Ireland 10 17  Cyprus 10 4  Faroe Islands 10 1
Group 5	Group 6	Group 7	Group 8
Team Pld Pts  Italy 10 23  Norway 10 18  Scotland 10 13  Slovenia 10 12  Belarus 10 10  Moldova 10 5	Team Pld Pts  England 10 25  Poland 10 24  Austria 10 15  Northern Ireland 10 9  Wales 10 8  Azerbaijan 10 3	Team Pld Pts  Serbia and Montenegro 10 22  Spain 10 20  Bosnia and Herzegovina 10 16  Belgium 10 12  Lithuania 10 10  San Marino 10 0	Team Pld Pts  Croatia 10 24  Sweden 10 24  Bulgaria 10 15  Hungary 10 14  Iceland 10 4  Malta 10 3

Play-offs

Sweden and Poland qualified directly to the World Cup. The other teams had to play off.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Sweden	10	8	0	2	30	4	+26	24
Poland	10	8	0	2	27	9	+18	24
Czech Republic	10	7	0	3	23	11	+12	21
Spain	10	5	5	0	19	3	+16	20
Switzerland	10	4	6	0	18	7	+11	18
Norway	10	5	3	2	12	7	+5	18
Slovakia	10	4	5	1	17	7	+10	17
Turkey	10	4	5	1	13	9	+4	17

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.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Spain	6–2	Slovakia	5–1	1–1
Switzerland	4–4 (a)	Turkey	2–0	2–4
Norway	0–2	Czech Republic	0–1	0–1

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

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Trinidad and Tobago	2–1	Bahrain	1–1	1–0

CONMEBOL v OFC

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Uruguay	1–1 (2–4 p)	Australia	1–0	0–1 (a.e.t.)

Withdrawals

•  Central African Republic


•  Guam


•    Nepal

Did not enter

•  Bhutan


•  Brunei


•  Cambodia


•  Comoros


•  Djibouti


•  Philippines


•  Puerto Rico


•  Timor-Leste

Excluded

• 
   Myanmar (for refusing to play a qualifier in Iran during 2002 qualifying).

Goalscorers

Included goals in the Inter-confederation play-offs.

14 goals

• 
  Jared Borgetti
  

12 goals

• 
  Stern John
  

11 goals

• 
  Jaime Lozano
  


• 
  Pauleta
  


• 
  Emmanuel Adebayor
  

10 goals

• 
  Ronaldo
  


• 
  Carlos Ruiz
  

9 goals

• 
  Didier Drogba
  


• 
  Jan Koller
  


• 
  Ali Daei
  


• 
  Francisco Fonseca
  

8 goals

• 
  Paulo Wanchope
  


• 
  Alexei Eremenko
  


• 
  Obafemi Martins
  


• 
  Zlatan Ibrahimović
  

References

External links

• Archive of World Cup 2006 Qualifying at RSSSF