2006 in association football
Appearance
The following are the football (soccer) events of the year 2006 throughout the world.
Events
- January 1 – Australia officially left the OFC and joined the AFC.
- January 3 – Antonio Cassano left A.S. Roma and joined Real Madrid. He debuted for the merengues on January 18, in a Copa del Rey match against Real Betis, and scored his first goal just three minutes after he came in during the second half.
- January 17 – Euro 2008 qualifying group assignments announced.
- February 8 – Turkish national football team banned from staging their six home qualifying matches for Euro 2008 in Turkey due to incidents during their 2006 World Cup qualification match against Switzerland, re-baptized "Welcome To Hell", which finished 4-2 in November 16, 2005.
- March 5 – Sydney FC are crowned Australian champions in the first season of the revamped national league (the A-League)
- April 5 – Celtic win the Scottish Premier League.
- April 9 – Netherlands Eredivisie: PSV Eindhoven won its 19th national title, second consecutive.
- April 22 – Alan Shearer announces his retirement from football, three weeks early, the cause is a knee injury.
- April 29 – Chelsea win second Premiership title in a row.
Winners national championship
- Australia
- England – For fuller coverage, see 2005-06 in English football and FA Premier League 2005-06.
- France
- Ligue 1 – Lyon
- French Cup – Marseille v PSG
- French League Cup – Nancy
- Germany
- Bundesliga – TBD
- German Cup – Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt
- Greece
- Alpha Ethniki – Olympiakos
- Greek Cup – AEK v Olympiakos
- Netherlands
- Eredivisie – PSV Eindhoven
- KNVB Cup – Ajax v PSV
- Honduras for fuller coverage, see: 2005-06 Apertura in Honduran Football Season
- Mexico
- Primera División de Mexico
- 2005-06 Apertura – Club Toluca
- Primera División de Mexico
- Scotland
International tournaments
- January 20-February 10: 2006 African Cup of Nations (Country winners: Egypt). Partecipating countries: Angola, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Congo DR, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Tunisia, Zambia, Zimbabwe (see also: 2006 African Cup of Nations (squads))
- June 9-July 9: 2006 World Cup in Germany
Deaths
- January 7: Gábor Zavadszky, 31, Hungarian footballer
- January 8: Elson Becerra, 27, Colombian footballer, shot killed
- January 13: Peter Rösch, 75, Swiss footballer
- January 14: Mark Philo, 21, English footballer, road accident victim
- February 4: Jenő Dalnoki, 74, Hungarian footballer
- February 8: Ron Greenwood, 84, English footballer and manager
- February 9: André Strappe, 77, French footballer
- February 13: Joseph Ujlaki, 76, French footballer
- February 17: Jorge Pinto Mendonça, 51, Brazilian footballer
- February 23: Telmo Zarraonaindía, 85, Spanish footballer
- February 25: Charlie Wayman, 83, English footballer
- February 27: Ferenc Bene, 61, Hungarian Footballer of the Year in 1969
- March 1: Peter Osgood, 59, English footballer
- March 6: Roman Ogaza, 54, Polish footballer
- March 12: Jimmy Johnstone, 61, Scottish footballer, 1967 European Cup winner with Celtic
- April 19: John Lyall, 66, English manager
- April 21: Tele Santana, 74 Brazilian manager
- April 25: Brian Labone, 66 English footballer