[danielf]

Originally Posted by Charlie_Bubble

Up to and including the world cup in 2002 the host country and holders have automatically qualified. This time, it has changed, don't ask me why, to only the hosts automatically qualifying.

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/releas...formats_en.pdf

Looking at that document, I just wondered if joint organisation might play a role. In 2002 Japan/Korea organised, and with France being the holder, only 29 teams actually played to qualify. Perhaps they figured having a potential 3 out of 32 qualify automatically was pushing it a little?