2006 Seedings Rank
| WC Seedings |
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| Rank |
Country |
Points |
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| 1 |
Brazil (Current Champion) |
64 |
| 2 |
England |
51 |
| 3 |
Spain |
50 |
| 4 |
Germany (Hosting Nation) |
48 |
| 5 |
Mexico |
47 |
| 6 |
France |
46 |
| 7 |
Argentina |
44 |
| = |
Italy |
44 |
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The seeding for the 2006 World Cup was based on a combination of FIFA's rankings over the last three years and the results obtained by a Squad at the last two World Cups (especially performances at the 2002 World Cup).
Brazil, the current champion, easily came top of the seeding table, England coming out second to Brazil. Argentina and Italy came joint seventh with 44 points, closely followed by the United States (which ranked 9th), just outside the top eight (the above seeded countries). The Netherlands, currently a strong force in Europe, not having qualified for the 2002 World Cup, came out 10th in the seeding rank, with 38 points.
Although some nations were notably unhappy about the criteria FIFA adopted for choosing the 2006 World Cup seedings, it seems that whatever the criterion, it would have been impossible to please everyone. As it stands, some might use an argument in behalf of fairness: all previous World Champions have been seeded, except of course for Uruguay, which ended up not qualifying for the current World Cup (loosing its place for Australia, in their final match).
On the other hand, if one considers all the points scored throughout the history of World Cups, an attribute that may be argued to confer special pedigree to the Squads heading the list, then Sweden has unfairly been left out of the selected seeding elite, in behalf of Mexico (which ranked even higher than France, Argentina and Italy, as above shown, following the criteria employed to determine the 2006 seeded Teams!).
And of course, by simply considering FIFA's ranking, then a larger number of Nations may feel unfairly left out of the selected seeding elite for the 2006 World Cup: the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and the USA, all within the current top eight – England, Germany (the hosting Nation), and Italy, all outside the current top eight, having been selected, instead.
Finally, it is worth remarking that, notwithstanding the many arguments which may fairly be raised, the current seeding criteria for the World Cup has unarguably the merit of having managed to place the nations that have most often played the World Cup, along its history, as well as all previous World Champions that have qualified, as seeded countries, in 2006.
At any rate, whatever criterion, or criteria, one may find should have been the most appropriate, it is of no use dwelling on possible if's and could-have's: for the dice have now been cast, and the 18th World Cup will soon be just days away!
World Cup: The 32 Teams, Rd. by Rd. 
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 GER: Germany |
 ENG: England |
 ARG: Argentina |
 MEX: Mexico |
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 CRC: Costa Rica |
 PAR: Paraguay |
 CIV: Côte d'Ivoire |
 IRN: Iran |
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 POL: Poland |
 TRI: Trinidad and Tobago |
 SCG: Serbia and Montenegro |
 ANG: Angola |
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 ECU: Ecuador |
 SWE: Sweden |
 NED: Netherlands |
 POR: Portugal |
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 ITA: Italy  |
 BRA: Brazil |
 FRA: France |
 ESP: Spain |
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 GHA: Ghana |
 CRO: Croatia |
 SUI: Switzerland |
 UKR: Ukraine |
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 USA: United States |
 AUS: Australia |
 KOR: Korea Republic |
 TUN: Tunisia |
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 CZE: Czech Republic |
 JPN: Japan |
 TOG: Togo |
 KSA: Saudi Arabia |
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Top 16, above, unshaded – in the Top 8, in italics – in the Top 4, underlined in italics + Top 2 (in bold type)
The 16 not making past the 1st Round, in gray shade Abbreviations, above: used by FIFA, as well as in this eBook.
2006 
World Cup
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