Start date 2006 | ||
Similar 2008 Africa Cup of Nations F, 2015 Africa Cup of Nations F, 2000 African Cup of N, 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification, 2013 Africa Cup of Nations F | ||
Listed below are the dates and results for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for Africa. 51 teams took part (only Djibouti did not enter), competing for 5 World Cup places.
Contents
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, Côte d'Ivoire, 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, Côte d'Ivoire 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.
Tiebreakers
If teams are even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams will be ranked as follows:
- greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams
- goal difference in matches between the tied teams
- greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams
- goal difference in all group matches
- greater number of goals scored in all group matches
- a play-off on neutral ground, with extra time and penalties if necessary (in qualifying)
- drawing of lots (at the final event)
This is a change from the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where total goal difference was the first tiebreaker.