April 9, 2006: The biggest sporting extravaganza in terms of viewership begins at Allianze arena in Munich on June 9, 2006 – The FIFA World Cup football. Hosts and one of the prime contenders for the title, Germany, will take on Costa Rica in the opening match. And promptly, the only man to win the World Cup as captain ( 1974) and Coach (1990), Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer is the chief organizer of the mega show.

Twelve cities have been chosen to host soccer’s mega show: Berlin, Dortmund, Frankfurt/Main, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Hannover, Kaiserslautern, Cologne, Leipzig, Munich, Nuremberg and Stuttgart. The finals will be held in Berlin.

Defending FIFA World Cup Football champions Brazil are the favourites as it has been the case always. In the last world cup soccer in Japan in 2002, Brazil beat Germany 2-0 to get the World Cup for the fifth time. Hosts Germany and European powerhouse Italy have won the world cup thrice, Latin American giants Argentina and Uruguay twice and England and France have won once.

FIFA, the governing body of World Football, has ranked Brazil as the top Football nation in the month of March. FIFA ranks nations every month. Czech Republic has come second in FIFA rankings, followed The Netherlands, Argentina, USA, Spain, Mexico, France, Engalnd and Portugual respectively in top 10. Angola is the lowest ranked team which has qualified for the 2006 World Cup -- it ranks 60th in FIFA list which has 205 nations.

India is ranked 118th in the list. In India, state-run broadcaster Doordarshan would telecast the semifinals , final and losers final, live. Argentina, England, Italy, France, Holland, Spain, Mexico, Uruguay are the teams which have been keenly watched in all world cups.

In the last world cup, though the matches were not played in prime time in US, Latin America and Europe, viewership per match was recorded around 314 million per match. This is a tribute to the worlds most popular sport. In Germany, the figure can only go up. 28.8 billion people watched the matches on TV.

Ghana, The Ivory Coast, Angola, Togo, Ukraine and Trinidad & Tobago are the teams which have qualified for World Cup for the first time.

The winners of the World Cup will be richer by $18.75 million.

FIFA World Cup Football 2006: The Groups

Following are the groups for the World Cup decided after the draw held after two years of preliminaries which had 850 matches played all over the world. The draw was held in December 9, 2005, in Leipzig.

Group A: Germany, Costa Rica, Poland, Ecuador
Group B: England, Paraguay, Triinidad & Tobago, Sweden
Group C: Argentina, Ivory Coast, Serbia & Montenegro, Netherlands
Group D: Mexico, Iran, Angola, Portugal
Group E: Italy, Ghana, United States, Czech Republic
Group F: Brazil, Croatia, Australia, Japan
Group G: France, Switzerland, South Korea Togo
Group H: Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, Saudia Arabia

FIFA World Cup Football 2006: Group Match Schedule

Group A June 9

Munich : Germany vs Costa Rica

June 9 : Gelsenkirchen : Poland vs Ecuador

June 14 : Dortmund : Germany vs Poland

June 15 : Hamburg : Ecuador vs Costa Rica

Previous World Cup Soccer winners' list

Year	Winner	Score	RunnerUp	Host
1930	Uruguay	4-2	Argentina	Uruguay
1934	Italy	2-1	Czechoslovakia	Italy
1938	Italy	4-2	Hungary	France
1950	Uruguay	2-1	Brazil	Brazil
1954	Germany	3-2	Hungary	Switzerland
1958	Brazil	5-2	Sweden	Sweden
1962	Brazil	3-1	Czechoslovakia	Chile
1966	England	4-2	Germany	England
1970	Brazil	4-1	Italy	Mexico
1974	Germany	2-1	Netherlands	Germany
1978	Argentina	3-1	Netherlands	Argentina
1982	Italy	3-1	Germany	Spain
1986	Argentina	3-2	Germany	Mexico
1990	Germany	1-0	Argentina	Italy
1994	Brazil	3-2	Italy	USA
1998	France	3-0	Brazil	France
2002	Brazil	2-0	Germany	Korea/Japan

June 20 : Berlin : Ecuador vs Germany

June 20 : Hanover : Costa Rica vs Poland

Group B

June 10 : Frankfurt : England vs Paraguay

June 10 : Dortmund : Trinidad & Tobago vs Sweden

June 15 : Nuremberg : England vs Trinidad & Tobago

June 15 : Berlin : Sweden vs Paraguay

June 20 : Cologne : Sweden vs England

June 20 : Kaiserslautern : Paraguay vs Trinidad & Tobago

Group C

June 10 : Hamburg : Argentina vs Ivory Coast

June 11 : Leipzig : Serbia & Montenegro vs Holland

June 16 : Gelsenkirchen : Argentina vs Serbia & Montenegro

June 16 : Stuttgart : Holland vs Ivory Coast

June 21 : Frankfurt : Holland vs Argentina

June 21 : Munich : Ivory Coast vs Serbia & Montenegro

Group D

June 11 : Nuremberg : Mexico vs Iran

June 11 : Cologne : Angola vs Portugal

June 16 : Hanover : Mexico vs Angola

June 17 : Frankfurt : Portugal vs Iran

June 21 : Gelsenkirchen : Portugal vs Mexico

June 21 : Leipzig : Iran vs Angola

Group E

June 12 : Hanover : Italy vs Ghana

June 12 : Gelsenkirchen : USA vs Czech Republic

June 17 : Kaiserslautern : Italy vs USA

June 17 : Cologne : Czech Republic vs Ghana

June 22 : Hamburg : Czech Republic vs Italy

June 22 : Nuremberg : Ghana vs USA

Group F

June 13 : Berlin : Brazil vs Croatia

June 12 : Kaiserslautern: Australia vs Japan

June 18 : Munich : Brazil vs Australia

June 18 : Nuremberg : Japan vs Croatia

June 22 : Dortmund : Japan vs Brazil

June 22 : Stuttgart : Croatia vs Australia

Group G

June 13 : Stuttgart : France vs Switzerland

June 13 : Frankfurt : South Korea : Togo

June 18 : Leipzig : France vs South Korea

June 19 : Dortmund : Togo vs Switzerland

June 23 : Cologne : Togo vs France

June 23 : Hanover : Switzerland vs South Korea

Group H

June 14 : Leipzig : Spain vs Ukraine

June 14 : Munich : Tunisia vs Saudi Arabia

June 19 : Stuttgart : Spain vs Tunisia

June 19 : Hamburg : Saudi Arabia vs Ukraine

June 23 : Kaiserslautern : Saudi Arabia vs Spain

June 23 : Berlin : Ukraine vs Tunisia