The finals will be played by 32 countries again at WC2006. The nations will go through a qualification process in their confederations again. The defending champion will not get an automatical entry to the finals for the first time in WC2006. The entries allocated to the confederations are as follows:
Host: Germany
Europe: 13 entries
Africa: 5 entries
South America: 4 entries
Asia: 4 entries
North/Central America: 3 entries
Oceania: 0 entries
Play-off: The winner of CONMEBOL 5th and OCF champion
Play-off: The winner of ACF 5th and CONCACAF 4th