FRANKFURT, Germany — The format for 2006 World Cup qualifying that gives the United States a first-round bye was approved Wednesday by soccer's governing body.
The United States will start qualifying on June 12 or 13 against either one of the 10 first-round winners from the Caribbean, or against Belize or Nicaragua — Central American teams that also have first-round byes. The second game of the home-and-home, total-goal series takes place June 19 or 20.
The proposal was approved Wednesday by the FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee.
The World Cup qualifying draw will take place Friday. The 12 CONCACAF second-round winners will be divided into three four-team groups for the semifinals, with the top two teams in each group advancing. The top three teams in the finals qualify for the 32-nation tournament, and the No. 4 team goes to a playoff against the No. 5 team from South America or Asia, or the Oceania champion.
Also Wednesday, FIFA announced the schedule for the 2006 tournament, which will take place in 12 Germany cities. The tournament opens June 9 in the new stadium under construction in Munich, and the final is July 9 in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, which is being renovated.
Quarterfinals were scheduled for June 30 in Berlin and Hamburg, and July 1 in Frankfurt and Gelsenkirchen, and the semifinals will be July 4 in Dortmund and July 5 in Munich. Other games will be played in Cologne, Hanover, Kaiserslautern, Leipzig, Nuremberg and Stuttgart.
Germany, a three-time champion, receives an automatic berth, but for the first time the defending champion does not. Brazil, which won its fifth title in 2002, is among 156 nations remaining in qualifying, which began last September with games in South America, which competes in one 10-team group.
Asia and Africa also started qualifying early, with 21 teams from Africa and six from Asia already eliminated.
In Europe, FIFA seeded the Czech Republic, England, France, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and Turkey. The eight group winners will qualify, along with the top two second-place teams, and the other six second-place teams will advance to a playoff that produces three more qualifiers.
The 30 remaining African teams will be split into five groups, with the winners advancing. Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia were seeded.
Eight teams were seeded for Asia's second round: Bahrain, China, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan. The group winners advance to the third round.