Competition Info

The FIFA World Cup is the most prestigious football competition in the world. The final round is played every four years after qualifying competitions within FIFA's various continental confederations.

Thirty-two participants
Over the years, FIFA has increased the number of final round participants, which now stands at 32. Eight four-team groups are narrowed down to a 16-team knock-out round, quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final, with the two losing semi-finalists taking part in a third-place play-off.

Co-hosted finals
The 2002 World Cup finals was co-hosted for the first time, with the Korean Republic and Japan jointly staging the competition. Following a string of upsets and shock results, Brazil beat Germany 2-0 to lift the trophy in Yokohama.

German hosts
Brazil, however, do not automatically qualify for the 2006 finals as reigning champions following a regulations change after the 2002 competition. For the 2006 finals, Europe will be represented in total by 14 of the 32 participating teams in the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals. Thirteen of those teams will be involved in a qualifying competition which involves 51 teams, while Germany will automatically qualify for the finals as tournament hosts. Germany will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of the last European hosts - France - who staged and won the competition in 1998.