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.

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.

The following 32 teams qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup: 1Includes 10 appearances by DFB representing West 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 both the Czech Republic and Slovakia as a successor of a team.

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.

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.

If away goals are also equal, then thirty minutes of extra time are played, divided into two fifteen-minutes halves.

This is a change from the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where total goal difference was the first tiebreaker.

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 African qualifying zone saw 4 out of 5 finals places going to World Cup debutants (Angola, Togo, Ivory Coast and Ghana).

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.

For the first time, Brazil, the defending champion, was required to go through qualification and was not automatically qualified for the tournament.