2006 FIFA World Cup qualification

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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: MacedonianFootball	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:	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:
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:	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:	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:
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:	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:

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	Qualify for final tournament
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

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