2006 FIFA World Cup (qualification AFC)
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Teams | 39 (from 1 confederation) |
Listed below are the dates and results for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for Asia.
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. Only the 14 last ranked teams according to FIFA took part in the Preliminary Round, where they were paired 2-by-2 and played home-and-away knock-out matches. The 7 winners joined the other 25 teams in the Second Round, 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.
In the 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.
If teams are even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams will be ranked as follows:
This is a change from the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where total goal difference was the first tiebreaker.
Guam and Nepal were scheduled to play against each other on November 21 and 25; Nepal withdrew, so Guam progressed to the 2nd round, but Guam later withdrew.
FIFA then decided to elect a "lucky loser", to select the best of the teams that lost, to advance to the Second Round.
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