Brazil at the 2006 FIFA World Cup World Cup, played Cameroon in the opening match; in 1994, Germany, winner of the 1990 World Cup, played Bolivia; in 1998, Brazil played Scotland and in 2002 France played Senegal). As of the 2006 World Cup, because of the change in the rules, with the last champion no longer having a secured berth in the competition, the opening match has become another privilege of the host nation (in the 2006 World Cup, Germany, as the host nation, played Costa Rica in the opening match). Despite being the returning champion, the Brazilian team debuted, against Croatia, only four days after the
2006 FIFA World Cup qualification and first round elimination in the previous tournament was considered to be due to lack of preparation that the qualifiers could have provided. The final distribution was as follows: The distribution by confederation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup is: UEFA and CAF have a guaranteed number of places, whereas the number of qualifiers from other confederations is dependent on play-offs between AFC's fifth-placed team and CONMEBOL's fifth-placed team, and between CONCACAF's fourth-placed team and OFC's first-placed team. A draw determined the pairings between the four teams involved. After the 2006 FIFA World Cup group stage of 2006 FIFA World