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Each .5 indicates a place in inter-confederation matchups for the last two spots, namely playoffs between AFC and CONCACAF and between CONMEBOL and OFC. 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 (h) - qualified automatically as hosts 1Excludes appearances by pre-division Yugoslavia . 2Excludes appearances by Czechoslovakia . If those are counted together, this is their 9th appearance, and their previous appearance was in 1990 . 3Includes 10 appearances by ''DFB'' representing West Germany between 1954 and 1990. 4Excludes appearances by pre-division Yugoslavia . If those are counted together, this is their 10th appearance. This is also their first appearance after the name change from the ''Federal Republic of Yugoslavia'' to ''Serbia and Montenegro''. 5Excludes appearances by pre-division . QUALIFICATION GROUPS Europe (UEFA) See Also: 2006 FIFA World Cup (qualification 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 The draw for the Playoffs was made on Friday, 14th October. South American (CONMEBOL) See Also: 2006 FIFA World Cup (qualification 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. 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) See Also: 2006 FIFA World Cup (qualification 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. 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) See Also: 2006 FIFA World Cup (qualification 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) See Also: 2006 FIFA World Cup (qualification AFC) ''(4 berths, after losing a playoff to CONCACAF)'' 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) See Also: 2006 FIFA World Cup (qualification 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''. 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:
Summary The teams that were involved in the playoffs are listed below. Qualifying countries shown in bold.
:(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 .)
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