Description

The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international association football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six populated continents participated in the qualification process which began in September 2003. Thirty-one teams qualified from this process along with hosts Germany for the finals tournament. It was the second time that Germany staged the competition and the first as a unified country along with the former East Germany with Leipzig as a host city (the other was in 1974 in West Germany), and the 10th time that the tournament was held in Europe.

Italy won the tournament, claiming their fourth World Cup title, defeating France 5–3 in a penalty shoot-out in the final after extra time had finished in a 1–1 draw. Germany defeated Portugal 3–1 to finish in third place. Angola, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Trinidad and Tobago and Togo made their first appearances in the finals.

The Islamic State of Afghanistan was established by the Peshawar Accords on April 26, 1992, with the participation of many Afghan mujahideen parties after the fall of the socialist government. However, its power was limited due to the country's second civil war, which the Taliban won, capturing Kabul in 1996. Consequently, the Islamic State became a government in exile and led the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. It remained the internationally recognized government of Afghanistan at the United Nations until 2001. After the overthrow of the first Taliban government, the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan was created, and an Afghan Interim Administration took control with US and NATO assistance. This transitional state later became the Islamic Republic, which lasted until the Taliban regained power in 2021 following a prolonged insurgency.