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2006 FIFA World Cup qualification

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2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
Tournament details
Dates6 September 2003 – 16 November 2005
Teams197 (from 6 confederations)
Tournament statistics
Matches played849
Goals scored2,476 (2.92 per match)
Attendance19,339,789 (22,779 per match)
Top scorer(s)Mexico 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. 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.

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 September 2003.

Qualified teams

[edit]
  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 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 runners-up 8 June 2005 14th 9 Winners (1978, 1986) 9
 Ukraine UEFA Group 2 winners 3 September 2005 1st — — 45
 United States CONCACAF fourth round winners 3 September 2005 8th 5 Third place (1930) 5
 Brazil CONMEBOL winners 5 September 2005 18th 18 Winners (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002) 1
 Mexico CONCACAF fourth round runners-up 7 September 2005 13th 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
 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 third place 8 October 2005 2nd 2 Group stage (2002) 39
 Paraguay CONMEBOL fourth place 8 October 2005 7th 3 Round of 16 (1986, 1998, 2002) 33
 Sweden UEFA Group 8 runners-up 12 October 2005 11th 2 Runners-up (1958) 16
 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
 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
 Czech Republic UEFA Play-off winners 16 November 2005 9th (4) 1 (last: 1990) Runners-up (1934, 1962) 2
 Spain UEFA Play-off winners 16 November 2005 12th 8 Fourth place (1950) 5
  Switzerland UEFA Play-off winners 16 November 2005 8th 1 (last: 1994) Quarter-finals (1934, 1938, 1954) 35

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

Qualification process

[edit]

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.

Summary of qualification

[edit]
Confederation Available slots in finals Teams started Teams eliminated Teams qualified Qualifying start date Qualifying end date
AFC 4 or 5 38 34 4 19 November 2003 16 November 2005
CAF 5 51 46 5 10 October 2003 8 October 2005
CONCACAF 3 or 4 34 30 4 18 February 2004 16 November 2005
CONMEBOL 4 or 5 10 6 4 6 September 2003 20 November 2005
OFC 0 or 1 12 11 1 10 May 2004 16 November 2005
UEFA 13+1 51+1 38 13+1 18 August 2004 16 November 2005
Total 31+1 196+1 165 31+1 6 September 2003 16 November 2005

Tiebreakers

[edit]

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:[5]

  1. greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned
  2. goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned
  3. greatest number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned
  4. goal difference in all group matches
  5. greatest number of goals scored in all group matches
  6. 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 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

[edit]

AFC

[edit]
Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup 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)

[edit]
Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC third round

Play-off for 5th place (fourth round)

[edit]
Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC fourth round
Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score 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

[edit]
Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (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)

[edit]
Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification – CAF second round
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3
Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  Togo 10 23
2  Senegal 10 21
3  Zambia 10 19
4  Congo 10 10
5  Mali 10 8
6  Liberia 10 4
Source: [7]
Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  Ghana 10 21
2  DR Congo 10 16
3  South Africa 10 16
4  Burkina Faso 10 13
5  Cape Verde 10 10
6  Uganda 10 8
Source: [7]
Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  Ivory Coast 10 22
2  Cameroon 10 21
3  Egypt 10 17
4  Libya 10 12
5  Sudan 10 6
6  Benin 10 5
Source: [7]
Group 4 Group 5
Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  Angola 10 21
2  Nigeria 10 21
3  Zimbabwe 10 15
4  Gabon 10 10
5  Algeria 10 8
6  Rwanda 10 5
Source: [7]
Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  Tunisia 10 21
2  Morocco 10 20
3  Guinea 10 17
4  Kenya 10 10
5  Botswana 10 9
6  Malawi 10 6
Source: [7]

CONCACAF

[edit]
Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (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)

[edit]
Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF fourth round
Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  United States 10 22
2  Mexico 10 22
3  Costa Rica 10 16
4  Trinidad and Tobago 10 13
5  Guatemala 10 11
6  Panama 10 2
Source: [8]

CONMEBOL

[edit]
Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (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

[edit]
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: [9]

OFC

[edit]
Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (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)

[edit]
Main article: 2004 OFC Nations Cup

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.

Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  Australia 5 13
2  Solomon Islands 5 10
3  New Zealand 5 9
4  Fiji 5 4
5  Tahiti 5 4
6  Vanuatu 5 3
Source: [10]

Final round

[edit]

Australia and the Solomon Islands progressed to the final stage.

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

UEFA

[edit]
Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (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. 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.

Group 1
Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  Netherlands 12 32
2  Czech Republic 12 27
3  Romania 12 25
4  Finland 12 16
5  Macedonia 12 9
6  Armenia 12 7
7  Andorra 12 5
Source: [11]
 Group 2
Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  Ukraine 12 25
2  Turkey 12 23
3  Denmark 12 22
4  Greece 12 21
5  Albania 12 13
6  Georgia 12 10
7  Kazakhstan 12 1
Source: [11]
 Group 3
Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  Portugal 12 30
2  Slovakia 12 23
3  Russia 12 23
4  Estonia 12 17
5  Latvia 12 15
6  Liechtenstein 12 8
7  Luxembourg 12 0
Source: [11]
Group 4
Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  France 10 20
2   Switzerland 10 18
3  Israel 10 18
4  Republic of Ireland 10 17
5  Cyprus 10 4
6  Faroe Islands 10 1
Source: [11]
 Group 5
Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  Italy 10 23
2  Norway 10 18
3  Scotland 10 13
4  Slovenia 10 12
5  Belarus 10 10
6  Moldova 10 5
Source: [11]
 Group 6
Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  England 10 25
2  Poland 10 24
3  Austria 10 15
4  Northern Ireland 10 9
5  Wales 10 8
6  Azerbaijan 10 3
Source: [11]
Group 7
Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  Serbia and Montenegro 10 22
2  Spain 10 20
3  Bosnia and Herzegovina 10 16
4  Belgium 10 12
5  Lithuania 10 10
6  San Marino 10 0
Source: [11]
 Group 8
Pos Team
 Pld Pts
1  Croatia 10 24
2  Sweden 10 24
3  Bulgaria 10 15
4  Hungary 10 14
5  Iceland 10 4
6  Malta 10 3
Source: [11]

Play-offs

[edit]
Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA second round

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

Pos Grp Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 8  Sweden 10 8 0 2 30 4 +26 24 Qualification to 2006 FIFA World Cup
2 6  Poland 10 8 0 2 27 9 +18 24
3 1  Czech Republic 10 7 0 3 23 11 +12 21 Advance to second round (play-offs)
4 7  Spain 10 5 5 0 19 3 +16 20
5 4   Switzerland 10 4 6 0 18 7 +11 18
6 5  Norway 10 5 3 2 12 7 +5 18
7 3  Slovakia 10 4 5 1 17 7 +10 17
8 2  Turkey 10 4 5 1 13 9 +4 17
Source: [11]

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.Tooltip Aggregate score 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

[edit]
Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (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

[edit]
Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF–AFC play-off)
Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Trinidad and Tobago  2–1  Bahrain 1–1 1–0

CONMEBOL v OFC

[edit]
Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL–OFC play-off)
Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Uruguay  1–1 (2–4 p)  Australia 1–0 0–1 (a.e.t.)

Withdrawals

[edit]

Did not enter

[edit]

Excluded

[edit]
  •  Myanmar (for refusing to play a qualifier in Iran during 2002 qualifying)

Top goalscorers

[edit]

There were 2,476 goals scored in 849 matches, for an average of 2.92 goals per match.

14 goals

12 goals

11 goals

10 goals

9 goals

8 goals

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

References

[edit]
  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. Archived from the original on September 19, 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  3. ^ a b c Bond, David (30 Nov 2001). "Winners will have to qualify ; World Cup shock". Evening Standard. No. C Edition. London. p. 88.
  4. ^ "Qualifiers". FIFA. Archived from the original on March 2, 2008. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
  5. ^ "Regulations 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany" (PDF). 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-19. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  6. ^ a b "2006 FIFA World Cup Germany Preliminaries: Asian Zone". FIFA.com. Archived from the original on 11 January 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2008.
  7. ^ a b c d e "FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF) 2006, football - table and standings". soccer365.me. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  8. ^ "FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF) 2006, football - table and standings". soccer365.me. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  9. ^ "FIFA World Cup qualifiction (CONMEBOL) 2006, football - table and standings". soccer365.me. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  10. ^ "FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC) 2006, football - table and standings". soccer365.me. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i "FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) 2006, football - table and standings". soccer365.me. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
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