Record African entry for 2006 World Cup

JOHANNESBURG, June 24 (Reuters) - A record 51 African countries have entered the qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup finals, which will begin in October.

The draw for the preliminary round of African zone qualifiers will take place in Paris on Friday but nine countries are to be given a bye into the second stage, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced.

Only the tiny Red Sea state of Djibouti has not entered the World Cup, although they did participate in the qualifiers for the 2002 Korea/Japan finals which 50 African nations entered.

The qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup will double as qualifiers for the African Nations Cup finals in Egypt earlier the same year.

Friday's draw in Paris will involve 42 of the 51 entrants, who will be paired off in a two-legged knockout round.

Exempted from the first stage are the five African countries who competed at the last World Cup finals -- Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia -- plus the next four highest placed on the FIFA rankings to be published on Wednesday.

They are likely to be Morocco, Egypt, Zimbabwe and the Ivory Coast, although Algeria, Ghana and Zambia could jump up the rankings after recent results.

The 21 winners from the knockout phase will join the nine exempted teams in five groups of six teams each in the second round of the qualifiers.

The winners of each group will qualify for the World Cup in Germany in 2006 while the top three in each group go to the Nations Cup finals in Egypt, planned for six months earlier.

The draw is scheduled for 1400 GMT on Friday.