When will FIFA allow more teams into the World Cup, ala NCAA Final Four Tournment?
369542
The better question is when will have better teams in the World Cup?  In some regions a lot better teams don't get in and some other regions get teams that aren't even competitive to meet the limit, but what are you gonna do.
1121488
Since the second World Cup in 1934, qualifying tournaments have been held to thin the field for the final tournament. They are held within the six FIFA continental zones (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Europe), overseen by their respective confederations. For each tournament, FIFA decides the number of places awarded to each of the continental zones beforehand, generally based on the relative strength of the confederations' teams, but also subject to lobbying from the confederations.\n\nThe qualification process can start as early as almost three years before the final tournament, and last over a two-year period. The formats of the qualification tournaments differ between confederations. Usually, one or two places are awarded to winners of Intercontinental Play-offs. For example, the winner of the Oceanian zone and the fifth-placed team from the South American zone entered a play-off to decide which team would qualify for the 2006 World Cup [11]. From the 1938 World Cup onwards, host nations have received an automatic berth in the finals. This right also used to be granted to the defending champion, but from the 2006 finals onwards, this entitlement has been withdrawn, requiring the champions to qualify as well [12].\n\n\n\nAFC -- In addition to the host countries Japan and Korea, two other teams from this confederation qualified for the finals. Forty teams played a round-robin style tournament, and, in the end, China and Saudi Arabia came out on top. \n\nCAF -- Fifty teams started the process in this confederation, and five made it to the finals. Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia will all compete. \n\nCONCACAF -- In this confusing process, thirty-five teams started, and three teams qualified. The first round of qualifying consisted of two mini-tournaments and an inter-zone playoff. The three top teams in the final round, Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States, qualified for the final competition. \n\nCONMEBOL -- Compared to the confusion of CONCACAF, this process was quite simple. Ten teams played in a tournament. The top four teams -- Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay -- qualified based on points (3 for a win, 1 for a draw) and advanced to the finals. Uruguay also qualified this year by winning a home-and-home playoff with the winner of the OFC qualification (more on that later). \n\nUEFA -- In the first phase of qualifying, the 50 nations in this confederation were separated into five pools based on past performance in qualifying for World Cup 98 and Euro 2000. They were then drawn into nine groups, and the winner of each qualified for the finals. The nine runners-up were then placed in a pot. Eight of the teams were randomly drawn to play in home-and-home pairings. The team that wasn't drawn (Ireland) played a team from the AFC (Iran) and won, earning a spot in the finals. So, after all the games, the teams that qualified are: Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey. \n\nOFC -- Unlike the other confederations, a spot in the finals is not guaranteed for this group's winner. Ten teams compete for the opportunity to face the fifth-place CONMEBOL country in a home-and-home playoff.
756849
At the 2007 World Cup, forty-eight games will be played in 12 different cities from September 7th, to October 20th. Ten of the cities are in France while Cardiff and Edinburgh also host games.\n\nAs of the start of 2006, 10 nations were already qualified for the tournament: the eight 2003 quarterfinalists were seeded in the four groups back in May 2005.
570487
FIFA \n\nFederation of international football associations
3141
Go to the FIFA Worldcup website www.fifaworldcup.com and participate in the ticket lottery. FIFA sells the tickets in several stages. Stage 3 lottery starts today, December 12th 2006, at noon German time, and ends January 15th. You can apply for a certain number of tickets on the website. Good luck!
235018
Sorry !!!\nTurkey is not qualify in FIFA worldCup 2006.
366246
It depends if the U.S really wants to host this event. Every world cup the venue is decided 8 years in advance with the prospective host countries bidding for the rights to host this mega event. So U.S will host the world cup again only if it makes a realistic bid for it. So it cannot host it till 2014 at least.
1048537
I hope yes,but it takes at lest 20 years.This is the next step after Africa.I wish to see the world cup there.
309502
32 teams participating in the World Cup, you could checkk www.fifa.com for more info on the World Cup\n\nQualified teams\n African Zone\n\n Angola (ANG) \n Ivory Coast (CIV) \n Ghana (GHA) \n Togo (TOG) \n Tunisia (TUN) \n\n Asian Zone\n\n Iran (IRN) \n Japan (JPN) \n Korea Republic (KOR) \n Saudi Arabia (KSA) \n\n European Zone\n\n Croatia (CRO) \n England (ENG) \n France (FRA) \n Germany (GER) \n Italy (ITA) \n Netherlands (NED) \n Poland (POL) \n Portugal (POR) \n Serbia and Montenegro (SCG) \n Sweden (SWE) \n Ukraine (UKR) \n Switzerland (SUI) \n Spain (ESP) \n Czech Republic (CZE) \n\n North, Central American and Caribbean Zone\n\n Costa Rica (CRC) \n Mexico (MEX) \n USA (USA) \n Trinidad and Tobago (TRI) \n\n Oceanian Zone\n\n Australia (AUS) \n\n South American Zone\n\n Argentina (ARG) \n Brazil (BRA) \n Ecuador (ECU) \n Paraguay (PAR)
1024177
Wait until the World Cup is over.
336154
32. it was 32 since 1998. Before that it was 24. the first world cup had just 13 teams.
991179
32 nations qualify, with only the host guaranteed to qualify.  FIFA determines the number of qualifying spots for each confederation (for 2006, it was 14 [with the host] for Europe, 4 for South America, 3 for North America, 4 for Asia, and 5 for Africa, with 1 spot contested between the Oceania winner and the 5th South American team, and another contested between the 4th North American team and the fifth Asian team).\n\nEach confederation has a different procedure for qualifying, in terms of how many rounds are played, etc.  South America has one group where all 10 countries play each other twice.  Europe divides into eight groups, with each group winner and the top 2 second place teams qualified, while the other 6 second place teams paired off in home-and-home playoffs to determine the other 3 spots.  Africa had head-to-head playoffs to get down to 30, then had 5 groups of 6, with the winners qualifying.  Asia and North America had several stages of qualifying.
522957
Qualification goes like this:\n\nThe world is divided into regions:\nAsia\nEurope\nAfrica\nConcacaf (North America, Central Am. and Caribian)\nSouth America\nOceania \n\nThen Fifa divides up the 32 possible spots to the regions based on the strenghtn of the region, number of teams, and various political stuff. Some of these are half slots that require a playoff with another region.\n\n\nThen each of the regional confederation determines how to determine which teams will qualify for the spots they have been alloted. \n\nEach region is different and can vary from one cup to the next.  Here is how it went this time around.\n\nEurope - 8 "Random" pools are created and the winners (and next two best teams) qualify and then the second place teams are randomly paired with a home and home deciding who gets the remaing spot\n\nConcacaf has several stages to create a final group of 6 who play round robin with the first 3 qualifying and the 4th going to a playoff with another region.\n\nS. America just has one large pool where everyone plays everyone home and away with the top 4 qualifying and the fifth going to a playoff.\n\nAfrica has 5 groups with the winners of the groups qualifying.\n\nAsia has 3 stages of groups with the final one having 2 groups.  Top two in each qualifiy with the third playing each other for a chance at a playoff with another region\n\nOceania has only a half spot with the top two teams in the final group stage playing each other for the right to play \na team in another region for the right to go to.
445589
I'm afraid you'll have to wait until the event gets a little closer, then you will find it at URL  fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en. Good luck, it should be a great game.
1166655
Yes, the next tournament will be co-hosted bt Austria and Switzerland in 2008. The qualifying games begin this September
1076048
There are 32 Teams in the tournament
992272
I hope you're not trying to make this into a race issue, because it would be terribly lame.\n\nSoccer has been the most dominant sport amongst European countries for a very long time. By comparison, African countries have been producing World Cup teams only recently. \n\nIf the team is good enough, they will qualify. Take the US, for example, they are supposedly the "leader of the free world", but their team only recently began qualifying for the World Cup (and hasn't as of yet made it very far).