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 (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. In 2001 FIFA ended automatic qualification of the reigning champion,[1] so that 2002 champions Brazil became first to participate in the qualifying tournament. The hosts (Germany) retained their automatic spot.

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
Tournament details
Dates6 September 2003 – 16 November 2005
Teams197 (from 6 confederations)
Tournament statistics
Matches played847
Goals scored2,464 (2.91 per match)
Top scorer(s) Jared Borgetti
(14 goals)

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[2]
 Germany Host6 July 200016th (1)14Winners (1954, 1974, 1990)19
 JapanAFC Third Round Group 2 Winners8 June 20053rd3Round of 16 (2002)18
 Saudi ArabiaAFC Third Round Group 1 Winners8 June 20054th4Round of 16 (1994)34
 South KoreaAFC Third Round Group 1 Runners-up8 June 20057th6Fourth Place (2002)29
 IranAFC Third Round Group 2 Runners-up8 June 20053rd1 (Last: 1998)Group Stage (1978, 1998)23
 ArgentinaCONMEBOL Round Robin Runners-up8 June 200514th9Winners (1978, 1986)9
 UkraineUEFA Group 2 Winners3 September 20051st (2)45
 United StatesCONCACAF Fourth Round Winners3 September 20058th5Third Place (1930)5
 BrazilCONMEBOL Round Robin Winners5 September 200518th18Winners (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002)1
 MexicoCONCACAF Fourth Round Runners-up7 September 200513th4Quarter-finals (1970, 1986)4
 GhanaCAF Second Round Group 2 Winners8 October 20051st48
 TogoCAF Second Round Group 1 Winners8 October 20051st61
 EnglandUEFA Group 6 Winners8 October 200512th3Winners (1966)10
 PolandUEFA Group 6 Runners-up8 October 20057th2Third Place (1974, 1982)29
 AngolaCAF Second Round Group 4 Winners8 October 20051st57
 Ivory CoastCAF Second Round Group 3 Winners8 October 20051st32
 TunisiaCAF Second Round Group 5 Winners8 October 20054th3Group Stage (1978, 1998, 2002)21
 CroatiaUEFA Group 8 Winners8 October 20053rd3Third Place (1998)23
 SwedenUEFA Group 8 Runners-up8 October 200511th2Runners-up (1958)16
 NetherlandsUEFA Group 1 Winners8 October 20058th1 (Last: 1998)Runners-up (1974, 1978)3
 ItalyUEFA Group 5 Winners8 October 200516th12Winners (1934, 1938, 1982)13
 PortugalUEFA Group 3 Winners8 October 20054th2Third Place (1966)7
 Costa RicaCONCACAF Fourth Round Third Place8 October 20053rd2Round of 16 (1990)26
 EcuadorCONMEBOL Round Robin Third Place8 October 20052nd2Group Stage (2002)39
 ParaguayCONMEBOL Round Robin Fourth Place8 October 20057th3Round of 16 (1986, 1998, 2002)33
 Serbia and MontenegroUEFA Group 7 Winners12 October 200510th (3)1 (Last: 1998)Fourth Place (1930, 1962)44
 FranceUEFA Group 4 Winners12 October 200512th3Winners (1998)8
 Czech RepublicUEFA Play-off Winners16 November 20059th (4)1 (Last: 1990)Runners-up (1934, 1962)2
  SwitzerlandUEFA Play-off Winners16 November 20058th1 (Last: 1994)Quarter-finals (1934, 1938, 1954)35
 SpainUEFA Play-off Winners16 November 200512th8Fourth Place (1950)5
 AustraliaCONMEBOL v OFC Play-off Winners16 November 20052nd1 (Last: 1974)Group Stage (1974)42
 Trinidad and TobagoAFC v CONCACAF Play-off Winners16 November 20051st47

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. FIFA announced the decision in December 2001 at the draw for the 2002 Finals Tournament.[3] 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.[3] Media also noted that the change released an extra place for the contentious distribution of places by confederation.[3]

The final distribution was as follows:

The distribution by confederation for the 2006 FIFA World Cup was:[4]

  • 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
AFC39436419 November 200316 November 2005
CAF51546510 October 20038 October 2005
CONCACAF34430418 February 200416 November 2005
CONMEBOL105646 September 200320 November 2005
OFC12111110 May 200416 November 2005
UEFA5114381418 August 200416 November 2005
Total197+131+116631+16 September 200316 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.
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)

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.

Legend
Countries that qualified for the 2006 World Cup and 2006 African Cup of Nations
Countries that qualified for the 2006 African Cup of Nations

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
Source:
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
Source:
Team Pld Pts
 Ivory Coast 10 22
 Cameroon 10 21
 Egypt 10 17
 Libya 10 12
 Sudan 10 6
 Benin 10 5
Source:
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
Source:
Team Pld Pts
 Tunisia 10 21
 Morocco 10 20
 Guinea 10 17
 Kenya 10 10
 Botswana 10 9
 Malawi 10 6
Source:

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)

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
Source:

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.

Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 2006 World Cup
Countries that advanced to the CONMEBOL-OFC play-offs

Final positions

Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Brazil 18 34
2  Argentina 18 34
3  Ecuador 18 28
4  Paraguay 18 28
5  Uruguay 18 25
6  Colombia 18 24
7  Chile 18 22
8  Venezuela 18 18
9  Peru 18 18
10  Bolivia 18 14
Source:

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 Pld Pts
 Australia 5 13
 Solomon Islands 5 10
 New Zealand 5 9
 Fiji 5 4
 Tahiti 5 4
 Vanuatu 5 3
Source:

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.

Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 2006 World Cup
Countries that advanced to the Second Round

Final positions (First Round)

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4
Team Pld Pts
 Netherlands 1232
 Czech Republic 1227
 Romania 1225
 Finland 1216
 North Macedonia 129
 Armenia 127
 Andorra 125
Team Pld Pts
 Ukraine 1225
 Turkey 1223
 Denmark 1222
 Greece 1221
 Albania 1213
 Georgia 1210
 Kazakhstan 121
Team Pld Pts
 Portugal 1230
 Slovakia 1223
 Russia 1223
 Estonia 1217
 Latvia 1215
 Liechtenstein 128
 Luxembourg 120
Team Pld Pts
 France 1020
  Switzerland 1018
 Israel 1018
 Republic of Ireland 1017
 Cyprus 104
 Faroe Islands 101
Group 5 Group 6 Group 7 Group 8
Team Pld Pts
 Italy 1023
 Norway 1018
 Scotland 1013
 Slovenia 1012
 Belarus 1010
 Moldova 105
Team Pld Pts
 England 1025
 Poland 1024
 Austria 1015
 Northern Ireland 109
 Wales 108
 Azerbaijan 103
Team Pld Pts
 Serbia and Montenegro 1022
 Spain 1020
 Bosnia and Herzegovina 1016
 Belgium 1012
 Lithuania 1010
 San Marino 100
Team Pld Pts
 Croatia 1024
 Sweden 1024
 Bulgaria 1015
 Hungary 1014
 Iceland 104
 Malta 103

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 10802304+2624
 Poland 10802279+1824
 Czech Republic 107032311+1221
 Spain 10550193+1620
  Switzerland 10460187+1118
 Norway 10532127+518
 Slovakia 10451177+1017
 Turkey 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.

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

Did not enter

Excluded

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

Goalscorers

Included goals in the Inter-confederation play-offs.

14 goals
12 goals
11 goals
10 goals
9 goals
8 goals

References

  1. "Soccer: World Cup winners must qualify for Germany 2006". www.irishexaminer.com. 30 November 2001. Retrieved 18 July 2019. Next summer's World Cup winners will have to qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, FIFA have announced.
  2. "FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking (17 May 2006)". FIFA.com. FIFA. 17 May 2006. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  3. Bond, David (30 Nov 2001). "Winners will have to qualify ; World Cup shock". Evening Standard (C Edition). London. p. 88.
  4. "Qualifiers". FIFA. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
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