The2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18thFIFA World Cup, the quadrennial internationalfootball world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right tohost the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six populated continents participated in thequalification process which began in September 2003. Thirty-one teams qualified from this process along with hostsGermany for the finals tournament. It was the second time that Germany staged the competition and the first as aunified country along with the formerEast Germany withLeipzig as a host city (the other was in1974 in West Germany), and the 10th time that the tournament was held in Europe.
Italy won the tournament, claiming their fourth World Cup title, defeatingFrance 5–3 in apenalty shoot-out in thefinal afterextra time had finished in a 1–1 draw. Germany defeatedPortugal 3–1 to finish in third place.Angola,Ukraine,Ghana, theIvory Coast,Trinidad and Tobago andTogo made their first appearances in the competition. It was also the only appearance ofSerbia and Montenegro under that name; they had previously appeared in1998 as Yugoslavia. In late May 2006, immediately prior to the tournament, Montenegro voted in areferendum to become anindependent nation and dissolve the loose confederacy then existing between it andSerbia; Serbia recognised the results of the referendum in early June. Due to time constraints, FIFA had Serbia and Montenegro play in the World Cup tournament as one team, marking the first instance of multiple sovereign nations competing as one team in a major football tournament sinceUEFA Euro 1992.
The 2006 World Cup stands as one of the most watched events in television history, garnering an estimated 26.29 billion times viewed compiled over the course of the tournament. The final attracted an estimated audience of 715.1 million people.[1]
The vote to choose the hosts of the 2006 tournament was held in July 2000 inZürich, Switzerland. It involved four bidding nations after Brazil had withdrawn three days earlier: Germany, South Africa, England and Morocco.[2] Three rounds of voting were required, each round eliminating the nation with the fewest votes. The first two rounds were held on 6 July 2000, and the final round was held on 7 July 2000, which Germany won over South Africa.
Accusations of bribery and corruption had marred the success of Germany's bid from the very beginning. On the very day of the vote, a hoax bribery affair was made public, leading to calls for a re-vote.[4] On the night before the vote, German satirical magazineTitanic sent letters to FIFA representatives, offering joke gifts likecuckoo clocks andBlack Forest ham in exchange for their vote for Germany. Oceania delegateCharlie Dempsey, who had initially backed England, had then been instructed to support South Africa following England's elimination. He abstained, citing "intolerable pressure" on the eve of the vote.[5] Had Dempsey voted as originally instructed, the vote would have resulted with a 12–12 tie, and FIFA presidentSepp Blatter, who favoured the South African bid,[6] would have had to cast the deciding vote.[7]
More irregularities surfaced soon after, including, in the months leading up to the decision, the sudden interest of German politicians and major businesses in the four Asian countries whose delegates were decisive for the vote.[8] Just a week before the vote, the German government underChancellorGerhard Schröder lifted their arms embargo onSaudi Arabia and agreed to send grenade launchers to the country.DaimlerChrysler invested several hundred million euros inHyundai, where one of the sons of the company's founder was a member of FIFA's executive committee. BothVolkswagen andBayer announced investments inThailand andSouth Korea, whose respective delegatesWorawi Makudi andChung Mong-joon were possible voters for Germany.[8][9] Makudi additionally received a payment by a company of German media mogulLeo Kirch, who also paid millions for usually worthless TV rights for friendly matches of theGermany team andFC Bayern Munich.[8][9]
On 16 October 2015, German news magazineDer Spiegel alleged that a slush fund with money from then-Adidas CEORobert Louis-Dreyfus was used to influence the vote of four Asian members of the FIFA executive committee.[10] The sum of €6.7 million was later demanded back by Dreyfus. In order to retrieve the money, theOrganising Committee paid an equivalent sum to FIFA, allegedly as a German share for the cost of a closing ceremony, which never materialized.[8]Wolfgang Niersbach, president of theGerman Football Association (DFB), denied the allegations on 17 October 2015, saying that "the World Cup was not bought" and that he could "absolutely and categorically rule out the existence of a slush fund". The DFB announced they would consider seeking legal action against Der Spiegel.[11] During a press conference on 22 October 2015, Niersbach repeated his stance, emphasising that the €6.7 million was used in 2002 to secure a subsidy by FIFA.[12] According to Niersbach, the payment had been agreed upon during a meeting betweenFranz Beckenbauer and FIFA president Blatter, with the money being provided by Dreyfus. On the same day, FIFA contradicted Niersbach's statement, saying: "By our current state of knowledge, no such payment of 10 million francs was registered by FIFA in 2002."[13] The following day, former DFB presidentTheo Zwanziger publicly accused Niersbach of lying, saying: "It is evident that there was a slush fund for the German World Cup application". According to Zwanziger, the €6.7 million went toMohamed Bin Hammam, who at the time was supporting Blatter's campaign for president againstIssa Hayatou.[14]
198 teams attempted to qualify for the 2006 World Cup.[18] Germany, the host nation, was granted automatic qualification, with the remaining 31 finals places divided among the continental confederations. For the first time since 1934, the defending champions did not automatically qualify for the tournament meaningBrazil had to play in the qualifiers. Thirteen places were contested byUEFA teams (Europe), five byCAF teams (Africa), four byCONMEBOL teams (South America), four byAFC teams (Asia), and three byCONCACAF teams (North and Central America and Caribbean). The remaining two places were decided by playoffs between AFC and CONCACAF and between CONMEBOL andOFC (Oceania).
Australia qualified for the first time since 1974.
The lowest ranked team that qualified was Togo (ranked 61st).
For the first time since the 1982 World Cup, all six confederations were represented at the finals tournament.
TheState Union of Serbia and Montenegro dissolved prior to the start of the World Cup, on 3 June 2006, withSerbia andMontenegro becoming independent countries; their team competed at the World Cup unaffected. Their involvement in the competition became similar to theCommonwealth of Independent States that appeared atUEFA Euro 1992, a team formed to take theSoviet Union's place following dissolution, that multiple sovereign states had been represented in the finals of a major footballing tournament by a single team and the only occurrence in the World Cup finals to date.
In 2006, Germany had a plethora of football stadia that satisfied FIFA's minimum capacity of 40,000 seats for World Cup matches. The outdated and still-standingOlympiastadion in Munich (69,250), the venue for the1974 final match was not used for the tournament, even though FIFA's regulations allow one city to use two stadia.Düsseldorf'sLTU Arena (51,500),Bremen'sWeserstadion (43,000) andMönchengladbach'sBorussia-Park (46,249) were also not used. Düsseldorf was the only 1974 host city not to be selected to host games for the 2006 edition, while Munich andGelsenkirchen were the only ones with different venues from 32 years prior. One city located in the former East Germany,Leipzig, was selected to host games.
Twelve stadia were selected to host the World Cup matches. During the tournament, many of them were known by different names, as FIFA prohibitssponsorship of stadia unless the stadium sponsors are also official FIFA sponsors.[20] For example, theAllianz Arena in Munich was known during the competition asFIFA World Cup Stadium, Munich (German:FIFA WM-Stadion München), and even the letters of the companyAllianz were removed or covered.[20] Some of the stadia also had a lower capacity for the World Cup, as FIFA regulations ban standing room; nonetheless, this was accommodated as several stadia had aUEFA five-star ranking. The stadia in Berlin, Munich, Dortmund and Stuttgart hosted six matches each, whilst the other eight stadia hosted five matches each.
Base camps were used by the 32 national squads to stay and train before and during the World Cup tournament. FIFA announced the base camps for each participating team.[33]
Squads for the 2006 World Cup consisted of 23 players, as in the previous tournament in2002. Each participating national association had to confirm its 23-playersquad by 15 May 2006.[35]
The eightseeded teams for the tournament were announced on 6 December 2005 and placed into Pot A for the draw. Pot B contained the unseeded qualifiers from South America, Africa and Oceania; Pot C contained eight of the nine remaining European teams, excludingSerbia and Montenegro. Pot D contained unseeded teams from theCONCACAF region and Asia. To ensure that no group contained three European teams, Serbia and Montenegro was placed in a special pot, as they were the lowest ranked qualified team from Europe on the latestFIFA World Ranking; while it was deemed of less importance they had been seeded higher than Switzerland and Ukraine by the 2006 World Cup seeding tool.[36] Serbia and Montenegro was drawn first, then their group was drawn from the three seeded non-European nations,Argentina,Brazil, andMexico.
FIFA predetermined that, hosts, Germany would be placed in Group A, thus being assured of the venues of their group matches in advance of the draw. They also announced, in advance, that Brazil (the defending champion) would be allocated to Group F.
The group stage draw was held in Leipzig on 9 December 2005, and the group assignments and order of matches were determined. After the draw was completed, commentators remarked that Group C appeared to be thegroup of death, while others suggested Group E.[37][38] Argentina and the Netherlands both qualified with a game to spare with wins over Ivory Coast and Serbia and Montenegro respectively.
The first round, or group stage, saw the 32 teams divided into eight groups of four teams. Each group was around-robin of three games, where each team played one match against each of the other teams in the same group. Teams were awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and none for a defeat. The teams coming first and second in each group qualified for the Round of 16.
If teams were level on points, they were ranked on the following criteria in order:
Greatest total goal difference in the three group matches
Greatest number of goals scored in the three group matches
If teams remained level after those criteria, a mini-group would be formed from those teams, who would be ranked on:
Most points earned in matches against other teams in the tie
Greatest goal difference in matches against other teams in the tie
Greatest number of goals scored in matches against other teams in the tie
If teams remained level after all these criteria, FIFA would hold a drawing of lots
In the original version of the rules for the finals tournament, the ranking criteria were in a different order, with head-to-head results taking precedence over total goal difference. The rules were changed to the above in advance of the tournament, but older versions were still available on the FIFA and UEFA websites, causing some confusion among those trying to identify the correct criteria.[39]In any event, the finals tournament saw only two pairs of teams level on points: Argentina and the Netherlands at 7 points in Group C; Tunisia and Saudi Arabia at 1 point in Group H. Both of these ties were resolved on total goal difference. Also, in both cases the teams had tied their match, so the order of ranking criteria made no difference.
The finals tournament of the 2006 FIFA World Cup began on 9 June. The 32 teams were divided into eight groups of four teams each, within which the teams competed in a round-robin tournament to determine which two of those four teams would advance to the sixteen-team knock-out stage, which started on 24 June. In total, 64 games were played.
Despite early success byAustralia,Ecuador, andGhana, the tournament marked a return to dominance of traditional football powers. Four years after the2002 tournament, in which teams from North America (theUnited States), Africa (Senegal) and Asia (South Korea) made it deep into the knockout stages andTurkey finished third, all eight seeded teams progressed to the knockout stages and no quarter-finalists were from outside Europe or South America. Six former champions took part in the quarter-finals, with Ukraine andEuro 2004 runners-upPortugal as the only relative outsiders.[41] Argentina and Brazil were eliminated in the quarter-finals, leaving an all-European final four for only the fourth time (after the1934,1966, and1982 tournaments).
Despite the early goals that flooded the group stages, the knock-out phase had a much lower goals per match ratio. A prime example of the dearth of goals was Portugal, which only scored in the 23rd minute of the round of 16, and did not score again until the 88th minute of the third place play-off. No player managed to score a hat-trick in this tournament. Italy, Germany, Argentina, Brazil and France were the only teams to score more than one goal in a knockout match. Germany was one of the exceptions, tending to play an attacking style of football throughout the knock-out stage, which was reflected by the fact that they scored the most goals (14), with players from all three outfield positions (defence, midfield and forward) making the scoresheet.
Germany'sMiroslav Klose scored five goals to claim the Golden Boot, the lowest total to win the prize since1962. No other player scored more than three goals. No player from the winning Italian squad scored more than two goals, though ten players had scored for the team, tying France's record in1982 for the most goalscorers from any one team.
For the first time ever in the FIFA World Cup, the first and last goals of the tournament were scored by defenders. Germanleft-backPhilipp Lahm scored the opener against Costa Rica after only 5 minutes of the opening match. In the final, Italiancentre-backMarco Materazzi out-jumpedPatrick Vieira and headed in the last goal of the 2006 World Cup. In addition,Fabio Grosso clinched the cup for Italy with the decisive spot kick in the penalty shootout.
The tournament had a record number of yellow and red cards, breaking the previous record set by the1998 World Cup. Players received a record-breaking 345 yellow cards and 28 red cards, with Russian refereeValentin Ivanov handing out 16 yellow and 4 red cards in the round of 16 match between Portugal and theNetherlands in a match known as theBattle of Nuremberg. Portugal had two players suspended for each of the quarter-final and semi-final matches respectively. FIFA PresidentSepp Blatter hinted that he may allow some rule changes for future tournaments so that earlier accumulated bookings will not force players to miss the final, should their teams make it that far. The tournament also saw English refereeGraham Poll mistakenly hand out three yellow cards to Croatia'sJosip Šimunić in their match against Australia.
The high number of yellow and red cards shown also prompted discussion about the tournament'sreferees. FIFA officials and President Sepp Blatter received criticism for allegedly making rules too rigid and taking discretion away from referees.[42]
In the opening match of the tournament, Germany andCosta Rica played a game which ended 4–2 for the host in the highest scoring opening match in the tournament's history. Germany went on to win the Group A after edgingPoland and breezing pastEcuador 3–0. Despite the defeat, Ecuador had already joined the host in the Round of 16 having beaten Poland and Costa Rica 2–0 and 3–0, respectively.
In Group B,England andSweden pushedParaguay into third place after narrow victories over the South Americans.Trinidad and Tobago earned some international respect after a draw with Sweden in their opening game and managing to hold England scoreless for 83 minutes, until goals fromPeter Crouch andSteven Gerrard sealed a 2–0 win for the Three Lions. Sweden qualified for the knockout rounds after drawing 2–2 with England to maintain their 38-year unbeaten record against them.
BothArgentina andNetherlands qualified from Group C with a game remaining. Argentina topped the group on goal difference, having hammeredSerbia and Montenegro 6–0 and beatenIvory Coast 2–1. The Dutch picked up 1–0 and 2–1 victories over Serbia and Montenegro and Ivory Coast, respectively. Ivory Coast defeated Serbia and Montenegro 3–2 in their final game, in Serbia and Montenegro's last international as the country had dissolved 18 days earlier.
Portugal coasted through in Group D, picking up the maximum number of points, withMexico qualifying in second.Iran missed chances against Mexico in their opening 1–3 defeat and were eliminated after losing their match against Portugal. They fought hard against the Portuguese, but lost 2–0. Their last game againstAngola ended in 1–1 draw. The Africans had a respectable first World Cup tournament after earning draws with Mexico (0–0) and Iran.
In Group E,Italy went through to the Round of 16 conceding just one goal (anown goal) byCristian Zaccardo in the group phase against theUnited States. The US bowed out of the tournament after disappointing results against theCzech Republic andGhana, 0–3 and 1–2, respectively, despite a 1–1 draw (finishing with 9 vs 10 men) against Italy. Tournament debutant Ghana joined Italy in the round of 16, following victories over the Czech Republic and the United States.Daniele De Rossi was suspended for 4 games following his sending-off against the United States.
Group F included the reigningWorld ChampionsBrazil,Croatia,Japan, andAustralia. Playing in their first World Cup for 32 years, Australia came from behind to defeat Japan 3–1, and, despite losing 0–2 to Brazil, a 2–2 draw with Croatia was enough to give the Australians a place in the Round of 16 in a game where two players were sent-off for second bookings and one, erroneously, for athird booking by English refereeGraham Poll. The Brazilians won all three games to qualify first in the group. Their 1–0 win against Croatia was through a goal late in the first-half byKaká. Croatia and Japan went out of the tournament without a single win.
France only managed a scoreless draw againstSwitzerland and a 1–1 draw againstSouth Korea. With captainZinedine Zidane suspended, their 2–0 win againstTogo was enough for them to advance to the knockout round. They were joined by the group winners, Switzerland, who defeated South Korea 2–0, and did not concede a goal in the tournament. South Korea won their first World Cup finals match outside their own country in defeating Togo, but four points were not enough to see them through to the round of 16 (the only team for which this was the case), while Togo exited without a point.
Spain dominated Group H, picking up the maximum number of points, scoring 8 goals, and conceding only 1.Ukraine, despite being beaten 4–0 by Spain in their first World Cup game, took advantage of the weaker opponents to beatSaudi Arabia 4–0 and scrape pastTunisia 1–0 thanks to a 70th-minute penalty byAndriy Shevchenko, to reach the Round of 16. Saudi Arabia and Tunisia went out of the tournament having 1 point each, thanks to a 2–2 draw against each other.
Theknockout stage involved the sixteen teams that qualified from the group stage of the tournament. There were four rounds of matches, with each round eliminating half of the teams entering that round. The successive rounds were: round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final. There was also a play-off to decide third/fourth place. For each game in the knockout stage, a draw was followed by thirty minutes ofextra time (two 15-minute halves); if scores were still level there would be apenalty shoot-out (at least five penalties each, and more if necessary) to determine who progressed to the next round.
In the second round, conceding two early goals in the first twelve minutes to Germany effectively ended the Swedes' hopes of progressing to the quarter-finals. Argentina struggled to get past Mexico until aMaxi Rodríguez goal in extra time put theAlbiceleste in the quarter-finals. Australia's journey ended when Italy were awarded a controversial penalty scored byFrancesco Totti, deep into the remaining seconds of the match, afterFabio Grosso went down in the penalty box.[43] The Italians had spent much of the game with only ten men on the field, following a controversial red card shown tocentre backMarco Materazzi. In a 0–0 match, described inThe Guardian as "the dullest game in World Cup history",[44] Switzerland failed to convert any of their three penalties in thepenalty shoot-out against Ukraine to see them exit the competition with an unwanted new record in becoming the first team in a World Cup to fail to convert any penalties in a shootout. Their elimination also meant that they became the first nation to be eliminated from the World Cup without conceding any goals (and indeed the only nation ever to participate in a World Cup finals tournament without conceding a goal). No two teams from the same group qualified for the quarters, all eight teams were from different groups.
England struggled against Ecuador but won 1–0 thanks to aDavid Beckham free kick. Brazil won 3–0 against Ghana, in a game which includedRonaldo's record 15th World Cup goal.Der Spiegel reported that the match may have been influenced by an Asian betting syndicate.[45] Portugal defeated the Netherlands 1–0. The only goal came courtesy of aManiche strike in anacrimonious match, which marked a new World Cup record with 16 yellow cards (Portugal: 9, the Netherlands: 7) and 4 players being sent off for a second bookable offence. France came from behind to defeat Spain 3–1 thanks to goals fromFranck Ribéry,Patrick Vieira, andZinedine Zidane.
Germany and Argentina ended 1–1 after extra time; the hosts edged out the Argentinians 4–2 on penalties to go through to the semi-finals (this was the first time Argentina had lost a World Cup penalty shootout: up until this match, Argentina and Germany had each participated in three penalty shootouts, winning all of them).
InGelsenkirchen, England faced Portugal in a repeat of their Euro 2004 quarter-final. This timeWayne Rooney was sent off, and Portugal again won on penalties, 3–1 after a 0–0 draw to reach their first World Cup semi-final since the days ofEusébio 40 years earlier. This gave managerLuiz Felipe Scolari his third consecutive tournament quarter-final win overSven-Göran Eriksson's England, first with Brazil en route to their 2002 World Cup win, then with Portugal in 2004 and 2006.
Italy defeated quarter-final debutants Ukraine 3–0. France eliminated Brazil 1–0 to advance into the semi-finals. Brazil only managed one shot on goal, whileZinedine Zidane's dribbling earned him Man of the Match and his free-kick toThierry Henry resulted in the winning goal.
With Argentina and Brazil eliminated in the quarter-finals, an all-European semi-final line up was completed for only the fourth time (after the1934,1966 and1982 tournaments).
The semi-final between Germany and Italy produced an extra time period that went scoreless until the 118th minute, when Italy scored twice throughFabio Grosso andAlessandro Del Piero, putting an end to Germany's undefeated record in Dortmund.
In the second semi-final, Portugal lost to France 1–0 inMunich. In a repeat of theEuro 1984 andEuro 2000 semi-finals, Portugal were defeated by France, with the decisive goal being a penalty scored by France captain Zinedine Zidane.
The hosts got three goals in 20 minutes in the second half with the help of 21-year-old leftmidfielderBastian Schweinsteiger. His first goal beat the Portuguese goalkeeperRicardo with pace over his head. Only 4 minutes later, Schweinsteiger's free kick 30 metres from the left of the penalty box, driven low across goal, was connected withPetit's knee to become an own goal for Portugal. The German did not stop, and netted his second goal, which swerved away to the keeper's left, in the 78th minute.
Portugal were strong in possession but lacked punch in attack; unable to convert 57% possession into goals.Pauleta had two clear chances from 15 metres, but both times hit tame shots that did not trouble keeperOliver Kahn, who was playing in his last match for the German national team. Portugal got a consolation goal with the help of substituteLuís Figo (also playing the final international game of his career), who almost immediately provided the precise distribution needed to unlock the German defence. A cross from the right wing on 88 minutes found fellow substituteNuno Gomes at the far post, who dived in for the goal. The game ended 3–1, a result which gave the tournament hosts the bronze medals and left Portugal in fourth place.
The final started with each side scoring within the first 20 minutes. Zinedine Zidane opened the scoring by converting a controversial seventh-minute penalty kick,[46] which glanced off the underside of the crossbar and bounced beyond the goal line before it spun back up, hit the crossbar again and rebounded out of the goal.[47] Marco Materazzi then levelled the scores in the 19th minute following anAndrea Pirlo corner. Both teams had chances to score the winning goal in normal time:Luca Toni hit the crossbar in the 35th minute for Italy (he later had a header disallowed for offside), while France were not awarded a possible second penalty in the 53rd minute whenFlorent Malouda went down in the box after a tackle fromGianluca Zambrotta. The reverse camera angle later made it clear that there was no penalty and that the referee took the right decision.
At the end of the regulation 90 minutes, the score was still level at 1–1, and the match went intoextra time. Italian goalkeeperGianluigi Buffon made a potentially game-saving save in extra time when he tipped a Zidane header over the crossbar. Further controversy ensued near the end of extra time, whenZidane head-butted Materazzi in the chest in an off-the-ball incident and was sent off. Extra time produced no further goals and a penalty shootout followed, which Italy won 5–3. France'sDavid Trezeguet, the man who scored thegolden goal against Italy inEuro 2000, was the only player not to score his penalty; his spot kick hit the crossbar, landed on the goal line, and went out. It was the first all-European final since Italy's triumph over West Germany in the1982 World Cup, and the second final, after1994, to be decided on penalties. It was also Italy's first world title in 24 years, and their fourth overall, making them the second most successful World Cup team ever. The victory also helped Italy top theFIFA World Rankings in February 2007 for the first time since November 1993.
Miroslav Klose received theGolden Boot for scoring five goals in the World Cup. In total, 147 goals were scored by 110 players, with four of them credited as own goals.
The All-star team is a squad consisting of the 23 most impressive players at the 2006 World Cup, as selected by FIFA's Technical Study Group. The team was chosen from a shortlist of over 50 players, and was selected based on performances from the second round onwards.[48][49]
A total ofCHF332 million was awarded to the 32 teams participating in the tournament. Each team who entered the competition received CHF2 million, with the biggest prize being CHF24.5 million, awarded to the winner of the tournament.[50] Below is a complete list of the prize money allocated:[50][51]
CHF7 million – To each team eliminated in thegroup stage (16 teams)
CHF8.5 million – To each team eliminated in theround of 16 (8 teams)
CHF11.5 million – To each team eliminated in thequarter-finals (4 teams)
Tunisian supporters watching their match against Ukraine at the Fan Fest in Stuttgart
In preparation for the tournament, FIFA and theOrganising Committee sought a way to accommodate people planning to visit. The experience of past World Cups and public viewing was conceptualized in 4-week-long events for football supporters to meet, board, interact, partake in cultural activities and watch all 64 matches on giant video walls. Since 2004, the details on costs, logistics, safety issues, marketing and broadcasting rights were jointly hammered out by FIFA and the host cities.[53] These public viewing events, known as "Fan Fests" (German:Fanmeile), served an idea to provide football supporters without tickets a legitimate opportunity to partake in the World Cup. Unlike the past tournaments where ticket-less fans were treated as security risks, the World Cup in Germany welcomed all supporters, thus generating positive atmosphere even before the tournament began. Even though security planners and media were sceptical and cautious on the matter of public viewing, the scepticism was cast aside with the beginning of the World Cup.[54]
Fan Fests for the World Cup were set up in 12 host cities and attracted 21 million visitors over the duration of tournament according toGerman National Tourist Board (FIFA claimed there were over 18 million visitors).[55][56] TheBerlin Fan Fest was located at the pedestrianisedStraße des 17. Juni, betweenBrandenburg Gate and theVictory Column, with 14 consecutive video walls attracted 9 million fans over the duration of World Cup with nearly a million supporters in each match that Germany played. For the first time in German history, an event scored more visitors thanOktoberfest.[57] TheCologne Fan Fest scored 3 million visitors, followed by 1.9 million inFrankfurt, 1.5 million inStuttgart, 1.46 million inHamburg, 1 million inDortmund andMunich, 500,000 inNuremberg andHannover, 471,000 inLeipzig, 350,000 inGelsenkirchen and 205,000 inKaiserslautern. Those numbers exceeded all expectations and some of the Host Cities had to expand the Fan Fest areas in the middle of the World Cup.[58] The most popular Fan Fests were located in the inner city areas, making the approach to keep the city centre generally "fan-free" applied by the authorities of Nuremberg ineffective as many football supporters preferred to stay in the picturesque city centre.[54] According to surveys conducted during the 2006 FIFA World Cup at the Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich Fan Fests, 28% of visitors travelled over 100 kilometres to attend the event and up to 84% came there together with friends. Around 21% of foreigners interviewed at Fan Fests visited Germany to see the World Cup without tickets to any match.[59][60] Media coverage of events had an additional positive effect as pictures of fans celebrating in front of giant screens attracted even more visitors from neighbouring European countries who had spontaneously decided to take part in the celebrations at Fan Fests.[54]
Despite minor inconsistencies in planning and execution, the Fan Fest concept was so successful in fact, numerous people later claimed personal responsibility for the invention.[54] The visitors' expectations regarding Fan Fests were fulfilled. During the World Cup, Fan Fests served as modernmarket squares where communication and interaction strengthen the feeling of community. Out-of-home media reception made the emotional aspect of escape from everyday life more intense for participants. Pictures of football supporters celebrating in front of video walls became a typical illustration of atmosphere in the country, while "Fanmeile" was later picked up as theGerman Word of the Year.[61] In 2007, FIFA and the 12 host cities received the German Marketing Prize for Sports for the innovative nature and marketing concept of Fan Fests.[62] FIFA and the Host Cities succeeded in creating and comfortable environment for foreign fans as 95% of them surveyed at Fan Fests agreed that it was an unequivocal declaration of international nature of World Cup and not a mere event for Germans.[59] A thought-out implementation of public viewing at such a large-scale football event as the 2006 World Cup became set a precedent. Immediately after the World Cup, FIFA announced that it registered thetrademark for Fan Fests, taking over the organisation and marketing and making Fan Fests an integral part of future World Cups.[63]
Broadcasters that were confirmed to be screening some or all of the matches instandard definition are inbold. Broadcasters screening matches inUHF werefree-to-air. This was the first FIFA World Cup to be entirely filmed inhigh-definition, with more regions broadcasting in thewidescreen standard.[76]
Fans in celebratorymotorcadeCelebrating fans inOlympiapark in Munich during the opening match between Germany andCosta Rica
FIFA presidentSepp Blatter stated the organization of the tournament was the best in history and that Germany had a welcoming public.[109] Through the many fanfests and large-screen broadcasts the feeling of a four-week national festival developed, in which much of the population took part.
During the first weeks of the tournament, there was concerned discussion about the wide display of theGerman national flag and theGerman national colours on houses, vehicles and clothing.[110] Numerous national and international observers from media, society and politics considered that this signified not only great support for the German football team, but even a "newpatriotism".[citation needed] This continued a development already observed during the2002 FIFA World Cup.[111] A study by theUniversity of Marburg suggested a slight rise innational pride.[112] However, sporadic attempts of far right organisations to use the tournament as a platform for their propaganda remained unsuccessful.[113]
As the German national football team contributed to arousing this previously undeclared enthusiasm and euphoria in Germany over a period of weeks, the thenGerman PresidentHorst Köhler presented the national players on 14 August 2006 with theSilbernes Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf), the highest sports award in Germany. The team's trainer,Jürgen Klinsmann, in February 2007 was furthermore awarded theBundesverdienstkreuz, not least for his reformed methods of modern training and playing methods, in which he persevered despite harsh criticism. Nevertheless, Klinsmann announced after the tournament that he would not extend his contract as trainer of the national team, since he felt completely burned-out and wished to spend more time with his family inCalifornia. TheGerman Football Association (DFB) on the same day named as Klinsmann's successor his assistant trainerJoachim Löw, since in the opinion of the DFB leadership he would best continue Klinsmann's work and training methods.
According to a representative survey taken inTrier by the European Tourism Institute (ETI), 96% of the German population considered that Germany was a good host during the World Cup. Additionally 93% of those interviewed found the international football fans to be agreeable.[114]
Strangers, a 2007 film which takes place during the 2006 World Cup
Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen, a 2006 documentary film recording the Germany national team from boot camp in Sardegna to third place play-off againstPortugal
Several countries celebrated this major event with the minting of specially high value commemorative coins. Among them is the Belgian 20 euroGermany 2006 FIFA World Cup Coin. The obverse of the coin shows a footballer with a ball, right above them '2006 FIFA World Cup Germany' can be clearly seen.
^abcdAumüller, Johannes; Kistner, Thomas (17 October 2015). "Geplatzte Gala".Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). p. 41.
^abFritsch, Oliver (4 June 2015)."Die verkauften WM-Turniere".Die Zeit (in German).Archived from the original on 30 September 2015. Retrieved18 October 2015.
^Moll, Matthias (2009). "Approach to Tourism and Sport".Football World Cup 2010 in South Africa: A comparison between German football tourists' expectations and the planned tourism marketing activities of the venue Port Elizabeth. Diplomica.ISBN978-3-8366-2551-7.
^Arnd Krüger:Sport and Identity in Germany since Reunification. In Philip Dine & Seán Crosson (eds.):Sport, representation and evolving identities in Europe. Bern: P. Lang 2010, 289–316
^To the question "Are you proud to be German?“, 7 % more interviewees answered "Yes" as before the 2006 World Cup.uni-marburg.deArchived 8 November 2020 at theWayback Machine The Marburg researchers however interpreted this however as a rise in nationalism, not in national pride.
^Elmar Vieregge:Die Fußballweltmeisterschaft 2006 und der deutsche Rechtsextremismus. In: Martin H. W. Möllers, Robert Chr. van Ooyen (eds.):Jahrbuch Öffentliche Sicherheit 2006/2007. Frankfurt am Main 2007, pages 137–145
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