List of FIFA country codes
There are currently 211 FIFA members, each one with its unique country code.
The following codes refer to countries or dependent areas that are currently not affiliated with FIFA, but whose codes either appear in the FIFA results database, or are used regularly by confederation websites.
2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
After the 2005 World Cup, beach soccer continued to grow and spread worldwide at a fast rate. Therefore, FIFA established the "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers", to try to allow more nations to play in the World Cup, as well as getting more national teams involved in the sport. FIFA also increased the number of participating teams in the World Cup from 12 to a record-high 16 teams. This also meant that nations would no longer be invited to play in the World Cup but would have to qualify.