FIFA World Cup 2006

The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th instance of the FIFA World Cup. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six populated continents participated in the qualification process which began in September 2003. Thirty-one teams qualified from this process, along with the host nation, Germany, for the finals tournament.

The tournament was won by Italy, who claimed their fourth World Cup title. They defeated France 5–3 in a penalty shootout in the final, after extra time had finished in a 1–1 draw. Germany defeated Portugal 3–1 to finish third.

The 2006 World Cup stands as one of the most watched events in television history, garnering an estimated 26.29 billion non-unique viewers, compiled over the course of the tournament. The final attracted an estimated audience of 715.1 million people. The 2006 World Cup ranks fourth in non-unique viewers, behind the 1994, the 2002, and the 1990 FIFA World Cups.  As the winner, Italy will represent the World in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup .

Qualification

198 teams attempted to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. Germany, the host nation, was granted automatic qualification, with the remaining 31 finals places divided among the continental confederations. This was the first World Cup for which the title holders were not granted automatic qualification. Thirteen places were contested by UEFA teams (Europe), five by CAF teams (Africa), four by CONMEBOL teams (South America), four by AFC teams (Asia), and three by CONCACAF teams (North and Central America and Caribbean). The remaining two places were decided by playoffs between AFC and CONCACAF and between CONMEBOL and OFC (Oceania).

Eight nations qualified for the finals for the first time:

• Angola
• Côte d’Ivoire
• Czech Republic
• Ghana
• Togo
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Ukraine
• Serbia & Montenegro

For the first time since the 1982 World Cup, all six confederations were represented at the finals tournament.

Venues

Germany in 2006 had a plethora of football stadia which satisfied FIFA ‘s minimum capacity of 40,000 for World Cup matches. The still-standing Olympiastadion in Munich (69,250) was not used even though FIFA’s regulations allow one city to use two stadia; Düsseldorf ‘s LTU Arena (51,500), Bremen ‘s Weserstadion (43,000) and Mönchengladbach ‘s Borussia-Park (46,249) were also unemployed during the tournament.

Olympiastadion (Olympiastadion) Location: Berlin Capacity: 74,176 Club: Hertha BSC Berlin	Signal Iduna Park (FIFA World Cup Stadium, Dortmund) Location: Dortmund Capacity: 67,000 Club: Borussia Dortmund
Commerzbank-Arena (FIFA World Cup Stadium, Frankfurt) Location: Frankfurt Capacity: 48,132 Club: Eintracht Frankfurt	RheinEnergieStadion (FIFA World Cup Stadium, Cologne) Location: Cologne Capacity: 46,134 Club: 1. FC Köln
Allianz Arena (FIFA World Cup Stadium, Munich) Location: Munich Capacity: 66,016 Clubs: Bayern München , TSV 1860 München	Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion (Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion) Location: Stuttgart Capacity: 54,267 Club: VfB Stuttgart
AWD-Arena (FIFA World Cup Stadium, Hanover) Location: Hanover Capacity: 44,652 Club: Hannover 96	Zentralstadion (Zentralstadion) Location: Leipzig Capacity: 44,199 Club: FC Sachsen Leipzig
Veltins-Arena (FIFA World Cup Stadium, Gelsenkirchen) Location: Gelsenkirchen Capacity: 53,804 Club: FC Schalke 04	AOL Arena (FIFA World Cup Stadium, Hamburg) Location: Hamburg Capacity: 51,055 Club: Hamburger SV
Fritz-Walter-Stadion (Fritz-Walter-Stadion) Location: Kaiserslautern Capacity: 43,450 Club: 1. FC Kaiserslautern	EasyCredit-Stadion (Frankenstadion) Location: Nuremberg Capacity: 41,926 Club: 1. FC Nuremberg

Finals tournament 2006 FIFA World Cup

The finals tournament of the 2006 World Cup began on 9 June. The 32 teams were divided into eight groups of four teams each, within which the teams competed in a round-robin tournament to determine which two of those four teams would advance to the sixteen-team knock-out stage, which started on 24 June. In total, 64 games were played.