Football World Cup 2006 Germany

Qualification

Qualification AFC | Qualification CAF | Qualification CONCACAF | Qualification CONMEBOL | Qualification OFC | Qualification UEFA | Asia-CONCACAF Qualification Playoff | European Qualification Playoffs | Oceania-South America Qualification Playoff

In the qualification process for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the six FIFA confederations were allocated a share of the 32 spots available on the basis of the strength of their teams. The final distribution was as follows:

• Europe - represented by UEFA : 51 teams competing for 13 places (Germany qualified automatically as host nation for a total of 14 places)
• Africa - the CAF : 51 teams, 5 places
• South America - CONMEBOL : 10 teams, 4.5 places
• Asia - the AFC : 39 teams, 4.5 places
• North, Central American and Caribbean - CONCACAF : 34 teams, 3.5 places
• Oceania - the OFC : 12 teams, 0.5 places

The .5 was for the 32nd team, which could be from either Asia or Oceania.

Notes on qualification

For the first time ever, the defending champion (Brazil) does not qualify automatically. The hosts (Germany) will retain 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; however, this idea was seen as giving Australia a virtually certain place in the finals, being by far the strongest footballing nation in their 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 December 5, 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

Team	Appearance	Streak	Previous appearance
Angola	1st	1	-
Argentina	14th	9	2002
Australia	2nd	1	1974
Brazil	18th	18	2002
Costa Rica	3rd	2	2002
Côte d'Ivoire	1st	1	-
Croatia	3rd(1)	3	2002
Czech Republic	1st(2)	1	-(2)
Ecuador	2nd	2	2002
England	12th	3	2002
France	12th	3	2002
Germany (h)	16th(3)	14(3)	2002
Ghana	1st	1	-
Iran	3rd	1	1998
Italy	16th	12	2002
Japan	3rd	3	2002
South Korea	7th	6	2002
Mexico	13th	4	2002
Netherlands	8th	1	1998
Paraguay	7th	3	2002
Poland	7th	2	2002
Portugal	4th	2	2002
Saudi Arabia	4th	4	2002
Serbia and Montenegro	2nd(4)	1	1998(4)
Spain	12th	8	2002
Sweden	11th	2	2002
Switzerland	8th	1	1994
Togo	1st	1	-
Trinidad and Tobago	1st	1	-
Tunisia	4th	3	2002
Ukraine	1st(5)	1	-(5)
United States	8th	5	2002

(h) - qualified automatically as hosts

Qualification Groups

Europe (UEFA)

(14 berths, including Germany as host)
The ten teams in bold qualified for the Football World Cup 2006.
The three teams in bold italics qualified for the Football World Cup 2006 through a single-pairing home-and-away playoff.
The three teams in italics qualified for the playoff, but did not qualify for the World Cup.

Ukraine qualified for the 2006 World Cup on September 3, 2005.

Croatia, England, Italy, Poland, Netherlands and Portugal qualified on October 8, 2005.

France, Sweden and Serbia and Montenegro qualified on October 12, 2005.

Czech Republic, Spain and Switzerland qualified through the playoffs on November 16, 2005

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4
1. Netherlands	1. Ukraine	1. Portugal	1. France
2. Czech Republic	2. Turkey	2. Slovakia	2.   Switzerland
3. Romania	3. Denmark	3. Russia	3. Israel
4. Finland	4. Greece	4. Estonia	4. Republic of Ireland
5. Republic of Macedonia	5. Albania	5. Latvia	5. Cyprus
6. Andorra	6. Georgia	6. Liechtenstein	6. Faroe Islands
7. Armenia	7. Kazakhstan	7. Luxembourg
Group 5	Group 6	Group 7	Group 8
1. Italy	1. England	1.  Serbia and Montenegro	1. Croatia
2. Norway	2. Poland	2. Spain	2. Sweden
3. Scotland	3. Austria	3. Bosnia & Herzegovina	3. Bulgaria
4. Slovenia	4. Northern Ireland	4. Belgium	4. Hungary
5. Belarus	5. Wales	5. Lithuania	5. Iceland
6. Moldova	6. Azerbaijan	6. San Marino	6. Malta

The draw for the playoffs was made on Friday, 14th October.

South American (CONMEBOL)

(4 berths, after losing a playoff against Oceania)

This zone is played as a league system on a home-and-away basis involving all 10 teams in a tournament which began in September 2003. The top 4 teams qualify automatically for the 2006 World Cup Finals; the fifth-placed team played off with Oceania.

Final Standings:

In bold: Clinched World Cup berth

Argentina qualified to participate in World Cup 2006, after a 3-1 win against Brazil on 8 June 2005.

Brazil qualified after a 5-0 win over Chile on 4 September 2005.

Paraguay and Ecuador got their ticket on 8 October 2005

In italics: Qualified for a play-off against Australia.

Uruguay had a home-and-away playoff against Oceania winner Australia on 12 and 16 November, having secured 5th place on October 12. The play-offs ended in a 1-0 victory for each home team, and Australia won the penalty shootout 4-2.

Country	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
1. Brazil	18	9	7	2	35	17	34
2. Argentina	18	10	4	4	29	17	34
3. Ecuador	18	8	4	6	23	19	28
4. Paraguay	18	8	4	5	23	23	28
5. Uruguay	18	6	7	5	23	28	25
6. Colombia	18	6	6	6	24	16	24
7. Chile	18	5	7	6	18	22	22
8. Venezuela	18	5	3	10	20	28	18
9. Peru	18	4	6	8	20	28	18
10. Bolivia	18	4	2	12	20	37	13

A full list of all matches and results, along with the current standings in this tournament can be found at Football World Cup 2006 - South American Qualification Groups.

Africa (CAF)

(5 berths)

Teams that have clinched a spot in the World Cup are in bold.

Togo qualified with a 3-2 win over Congo on 8 October.

Ghana wins their group with the South Africa-Congo DR 2-2 draw on 8 October.

Cote d'Ivoire clinched their berth with the Cameroon-Egypt 1-1 draw, on 8 October.

Angola qualified for the 2006 World Cup with a 1-0 win over Rwanda on 8 October.

Tunisia qualified on 8 October with a 2-2 tie against Morocco.

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5
1. Togo	1.  Ghana	1. Côte d'Ivoire	1.  Angola	1.  Tunisia
2.  Senegal	2.  Congo DR	2.  Cameroon	2.  Nigeria	2. Morocco
3.  Zambia	3. South Africa	3.  Egypt	3.  Zimbabwe	3.  Guinea
4.  Congo	4.  Burkina Faso	4.  Libya	4.  Gabon	4.  Kenya
5.  Mali	5.  Cape Verde	5.  Sudan	5.  Algeria	5.  Botswana
6.  Liberia	6.  Uganda	6.  Benin	6.  Rwanda	6.  Malawi

The above standings is the final order of finish. Complete details of all knockout matches from the first stage of qualification may be found at Football World Cup 2006 - African Qualification Groups, along with detailed standings and match schedules for the group stage of qualification.

Oceania (OFC)

(1 berth after winning a playoff with South America)

 Australia won Oceania's representative berth to play-off against the fifth placed team from the South American Zone. On September 3, 2005,  Australia won the first of the two matches to be played against  Solomon Islands 7-0. Australia won the second match 2-1 on September 6, 2005, winning 9-1 on aggregate and won the right to playoff against the fifth placed South American team. This was Uruguay, as they qualified in 5th place on October 12, 2005, after beating Argentina 1-0. Australia finally prevailed 4-2 in a penalty shoot-out after both play-off matches had ended 1-0 for the home team.

Full details of prior group stages, along with league tables are available at Football World Cup 2006 - Oceania Qualification Groups.

Asia (AFC)

(4 berths, after losing a playoff to CONCACAF)

Group A	Group B
1.  Saudi Arabia	1.  Japan
2.  South Korea	2.  Iran
3.  Uzbekistan	3.  Bahrain
4.  Kuwait	4.  North Korea

Full updates of the Asian Football Confederation qualification process, including the two prior stages, can be found at Football World Cup 2006 - Asian Qualification Groups. As of 8 June, 2005, Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea, and Iran are officially qualified to participate in World Cup 2006.

Uzbekistan and Bahrain (the 3rd place teams in each group) played a home-and-away match to determine Asia's representative in a playoff against CONCACAF's 4th place team, and are displayed in italics. The result of the first game, played on September 3, 2005, Uzbekistan won 1-0. However, on September 6, 2005, FIFA had decided that the match was to be declared void and ordered a replay following a refereeing blunder. The playoff was postponed to October 8 in Uzbekistan and October 12 in Bahrain. The October 8 match ended in a 1-1 draw, and the October 12 match was a 0-0 draw. Bahrain, having scored one away goal to Uzbekistan's zero, advanced to the playoff. Bahrain lost the playoff on November 16, 2005.

North America, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF)

(4 berths by winning a playoff with Asia)

Teams that have clinched berths for 2006 are bolded.

United States clinched the first berth to Germany with a 2-0 win over Mexico on September 3 2005.

Mexico clinched the second of the three guaranteed berths on September 7 with a 5-0 win over Panama.

Costa Rica clinched the final automatic berth on October 8 with a 3-0 win over the United States.

Trinidad and Tobago, earned a playoff with the Asian 5th-place winner Bahrain with a 2-1 victory over Mexico on October 12. They subsequently won the playoff on November 16, 2005 on aggregate 2-1, clinching a 2006 berth. They are in bold italics.

1. United States

2. Mexico

3. Costa Rica

4. Trinidad and Tobago

5. Guatemala

6. Panama

Full details of the qualification process for this confederation, along with results of previous stages of competition, can be found at Football World Cup 2006 - North, Central American and Caribbean Qualification Groups.

Playoffs

On November 12 and November 16, 2005, five two-legged playoffs were conducted, with the winners earning the last five places in the World Cup:

• The six second-place teams from Europe that did not automatically qualify were drawn into three playoff matches. Full details of these playoffs can be found at Football World Cup 2006 - European Qualification Playoffs.

• Australia won the Oceania-South America Qualification Playoff penalty shootout 4-2 after both games were won 1:0 by the home team. Full details of this playoff can be found at Football World Cup 2006 - Oceania-South America Qualification Playoff.

• Trinidad and Tobago won the Asia-CONCACAF Qualification Playoff with an aggregate score of 2-1. Full details of this playoff can be found at Football World Cup 2006 - Asia-CONCACAF Qualification Playoff.

Summary

The teams that were involved in the playoffs are listed below. Qualifying countries shown in bold.

• Europe (UEFA)
  • Norway vs Czech Republic (aggregate score 0-2)
  • Spain vs Slovakia (aggregate score 6-2)
  •   Switzerland vs Turkey (aggregate score 4-4, Switzerland won on away goals)

(Czech Republic, Turkey, and Spain were seeded because they were the three highest placed according to the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking for September 2005.)

• Oceania (OFC) vs South America (CONMEBOL)
  • Uruguay vs Australia (aggregate score 1-1, Australia won penalty shootout 4-2)

• Asia (AFC) vs North America, Central America & Caribbean (CONCACAF)
  • Trinidad and Tobago vs Bahrain (aggregate score 2-1)

External links

• Archive of World Cup 2006 Qualifying at RSSSF

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