FIFA NEWS

December 10, 2005 Qualifying tournaments by conference for the FIFA 2006 U-20 World Cup Host Russia qualifies automatically. UEF-4 qualifiers Tournament was the 2005-06 U-19 European Championship. Qualifiers Germany, Switzerland, Finland and France OFC-1 qualifier Tournament to be held at the JS Blatter Soccer Complex in Apia, Samoa from April 1 - 15, 2006. Group A Vanuatu Tonga New Zealand New Caledonia Solomon Islands Group B Fiji Papua New Guinea Tahiti Samoa Cook Islands Note Australia will officially move from the OFC to the AFC as of January 1, 2006. AFC-3 qualifiers A qualifying tournament will be held February 21 - March 4, 2006 with the final tournament to be held April 19-30, 2006. The list of participants currently are Japan, China, South Korea, North Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Guam, Singapore, Hongkong, Myanmar, Uzbekistan, Malaysia, Philippines, Nepal, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Australia and Maldives. CAF-2 qualifiers CAF is using the home and away format again for their 2006 tournament that starts in April and ends in July. The deadline for participants has been extended until February 1, 2006 due to lack of teams. Current participants are Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Congo-Kinshasa, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Morocco, Zimbabwe and Mali. CONMEBOL-2 qualifiers The South America tournament will be held January 4-20th. in Viña del Mar and Valparaiso, Chile. Preliminary Round January 4-13th. Group A at Viña del Mar Venezuela Chile Brazil Peru Uruguay Group B at Valparaíso Argentina Colombia Ecuador Paraguay Bolivia The top two from each group advance to the final tournament from January 16-20 in Viña del Mar. CONCACAF-3 Final qualifier will be held in Cordoba & Veracruz, Mexico from January 18-27, 2006. USA, Canada and Mexico automatically qualified for the final tournament. Panama and El Salvador advanced via the Central Zone qualifiers, and Jamaica, Trinidad/Tobago and Surinam via the Caribbean Zone qualifiers. Group A Mexico Canada Panama Trinidad/Tobago Group B El Salvador USA Surinam Jamaica