The Upset Fairy took the day off on SUN 11 JUN 2006. more...

Two Men's World Cup newcomers held their own against world powers on SAT 10 JUN 2006. more...

Otto PFISTER, appointed as coach of Togo four months ahead of the 2006 Men's World Cup, has resigned just days before his side start their Group G campaign against Korea Rep. The Hawks have been embroiled in a dispute with the Fédération Togolaise de Football over their bonuses, during which the players boycotted training sessions. Assistant Kodjovi MAWUENA has been promoted to fill the vacancy.

Ecuador served notice to Group A favourites Germany as the 2006 Men's World Cup opened. more...

FIFA have unveiled the rosters for the 32 teams at the 2006 Men's World Cup. The squad lists, submitted by the coaches MON 15 MAY 2006, include World Cup stalwarts like Kasey KELLER of the United States and CAFÚ of Brazil, plus newcomers like England's Theo WALCOTT and Argentina's Lionel MESSI. Nearly half of the players are professionals for clubs in England, Italy, Spain, France, or Germany, including 103 from the English league system. Each team may make changes to its official roster until 24 hours before its first match.

Cameroon's Samuel ETO'O won't be headed to the 2006 Men's World Cup [except as a spectator], but he has consolation of a sort with the 2005 African Player of the Year award. The prolific forward, who has already scored 18 goals this season for Barcelona, won the closest vote in the award's history. Eto'o totalled 108 points, with Didier DROGBA of Côte d’Ivoire second at 106 and Michael ESSIEN of Ghana third at 50. Other CAF awards included the Young Player of the Year [John Obi MICHEL, Nigeria], Female Player of the Year [Perpetua NKWOCHA, Nigeria], Coach of the Year [Stephen KESHI, Togo], and National Team of the Year [Côte d'Ivoire].

FIFA's lengthy investigation into the violence amongst players and officials at the second leg of UEFA playoff 2 between Turkey and Switzerland on WED 16 NOV 2005 has resulted in severe penalties on all sides. Turkey must pay a fine of 200,000 Swiss francs [€129,000] and play their first six Euro 2008 qualifiers behind closed doors at neutral sites. Turkish players Alpay ÖZALAN and Emre BELÖZOGLU are suspended for the same six matches and fined 15,000 Swiss francs [€9,600] each. Switzerland's Benjamin HUGGEL was also suspended six matches and fined the same amount, meaning he will not be eligible for Germany 2006 unless Switzerland reach the third place match or the final. Turkey player Serkan BALCI and Switzerland physiotherapist Stephan MEYER were each suspended two games, and Turkey's assistant coach Mehmet ÖZDILEK cannot take part in any football related activities for a year. All punishments, other than those to Balci and Meyer, can be appealed to the FIFA appeals committee and then to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Brazil's RONALDINHO made it two years in a row as he collected the 2005 FIFA Men's World Player of the Year award. The tally was even more convincing than the recent Ballon d'Or vote, which also went Ronaldinho's way. This time, he earned 956 points to put away England's Frank LAMPARD [306 points] and Cameroon's Samuel ETO'O [190].

The final draw for the 2006 Men's World Cup paired up several well known opponents, starting in Group B, where for the second straight World Cup, England will face Sweden in the first round. In Group G, qualifying rivals France and Switzerland, who battled in UEFA Group 4, meet again. Brazil, Australia, and Japan, who regularly meet at Confederations Cup tournaments, are together again in Group F. But the consensus Group of Death is likely to be Group C, made up of Argentina, Côte d’Ivoire, Serbia-Montenegro, and the Netherlands. The tournament's opening match will be Germany-Costa Rica, FRI 09 JUN 2006 in München. more...

The 2006 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee has settled on the pots to be used in the final draw. The top eight seeds were decided using a formula that includes performance at France 1998 and Korea/Japan 2002, as well as the FIFA World Rankings over the past three years. Hence, Brazil, England, Spain, Germany, Mexico, France, Argentina, and Italy have made the cut; the United States fell 1.4 points short. Germany are atop Group A, Brazil lead Group F, and the other seeded teams are in Pot 1. Pot 2 contains CAF, OFC, and the other CONMEBOL teams, Pot 3 features eight of the remaining UEFA teams, and Pot 4 includes AFC and the other CONCACAF teams. Finally, Serbia-Montenegro, as the lowest ranked UEFA side, are in a special pot and must be in either Argentina's, Brazil's, or Mexico's group.

RONALDINHO ran away with the vote for the 2005 Ballon d'Or, the European Footballer of the Year award given by France Football magazine. The Brazil midfielder/forward, who stars for Barcelona, totalled 225 points in the voting, well ahead of two England players, Frank LAMPARD of Chelsea [148 points] and Steven GERRARD of Liverpool [142].

The CONMEBOL/OFC playoff between Australia and Uruguay went to overtime after both legs finished 1-0 to the home team. After thirty goalless minutes, it became the first time a Men's World Cup place was decided on penalties. Mark SCHWARZER saved two attempts, and John ALOISI scored the winner to send Australia into their first World Cup since Germany 1974. Elsewhere, Dennis LAWRENCE was the hero for the Soca Warriors as Trinidad-Tobago won the AFC/CONCACAF playoff 2-1 on aggregate over Bahrain, qualifying for the first time. In the UEFA playoffs, Turkey stormed back from a 3-0 aggregate deficit, but Marco STRELLER scored a second away goal as the final score ended up 4-4, Switzerland qualifying 2-0 on away goals. The Czech Rep dispatched Norway 2-0 on aggregate, and Spain won 6-2 on aggregate over Slovakia.

Crowd trouble at their last Germany 2006 qualifiers has led to FIFA sanctions for Serbia-Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia. Rival fans threw objects – including ripped out seats – at one another during Serbia-Mont's home match against Bosnia-Herz in UEFA Group 7 on WED 12 OCT 2005, leading to a closed door ban for Serbia-Mont's first qualifier for Euro 2008. That nation was also fined €23,000 [US$27,000], with Bosnia-Herz fined €26,000 [US$31,000]. Croatia's Group 8 match against Hungary on the same day was also marred by crowd disturbances, leading to another €26,000 fine.

Shock second place finishers Slovakia, who eliminated Russia on the last day of the UEFA group phase, will have one more challenge to meet as they were drawn against Spain in the playoffs. The Czech Rep will face Norway, and one of three unbeaten teams from Group 4, Switzerland, will play Korea/Japan 2002 semifinalists Turkey. The matches will be played on SAT 12 NOV 2005 and WED 16 NOV 2005.

After 837 matches played and 2,441 goals scored [not counting Mirjalal KASIMOV's goal in the Great Annulled Match of SAT 03 SEP 2005], 27 of the 32 teams to compete at Germany 2006 are known. The other five will be the winners of the AFC/CONCACAF playoff between Trinidad-Tobago and Bahrain, the CONMEBOL/OFC playoff between Uruguay and Australia, and the winners of the three UEFA playoffs. Each of the three seeded teams – Czech Rep, Spain, and Turkey – will be drawn against an unseeded team – Norway, Slovakia, and Switzerland – in Zürich on FRI 14 OCT 2005.

Three teams vied for one playoff place in CONMEBOL on WED 12 OCT 2005. more...