FIFA ratifies preliminary draw procedure, finals match schedule

[This post is to remind you of the draw for the 2006 World Cup
 Preliminary Draw, which will take place in Frankfurt, Germany,
 this Friday, 17.05-18.35 CET (GMT+2).]


The organising committee for FIFA World Cup has today announced
the draw procedures for the preliminary competition draw to take
place on Friday. 198 teams have entered the competition. As preliminary 
competitions have already begun in two continents and some teams have 
already been eliminated, 156 associations will be featured in the draw.

The adopted competition format will lead to over 850 qualification matches 
(estimated) being played, compared to 777 in the previous edition.

For all aficionados: a detailed 20-page description of the procedures
can be found at

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/releases/all_zones_draw_procedure_en2.pdf

(Note: includes fill-in boxes for those who wish to make notes during
 the draw!)

Interesting detail: for each confederation, the draw begins from the
lowest-seeded draw pot.

The organisers have also announced a first version of the final tournament 
match schedule. Each of the 12 venues will host four group matches, with 
no team playing more than once in any location. The tournament is 
scheduled to begin with matches in group A in Gelsenkirchen and München on 
June 9th, 2006. The grand final will take place exactly one month later at 
the Olympiastadion in Berlin, as speculated before.

Again, find the schedule here if you're interested:

http://images.fifa.com/wc/2006/media/2003_12_03_match_schedule_E.pdf

Also, something caught my eye in the regulations. It seems that 
head-to-head results have been made the first tie-breaker method after 
number of points in the groups, both preliminary and final tournament.
I did a check and a double-check to find out that indeed, there has been a 
change from World Cup 2002 in this matter. Keep that in mind when we 
kickoff to the preliminaries next year.

- Jouni