(¤) Special situations resulting from the merge⁄division⁄independence of nations:

• Germany's entry now includes former West Germany and former East Germany – since October 3, 1990, the officially recognized date for the German reunification.
• East Germany's entries, therefore, now rather constitute archived historical data, as they can no longer be altered.
• All of West Germany's entries and match references previous to October 3, 1990, should of course be credited to Germany.
• The Czech Republic's entry has been the former Czechoslovakia, thus the Czech Republic, itself, and Slovakia (the latter nation, up to 1 January 1993). Czechoslovakia's last entry dates as far back as the 1990 World Cup–that corresponding to their 8th time in the World Cup finals–the current Czech Republic's participation being their very first, since then. It is counted as their 9th, above.
  Alternatively, the count might have stopped at the 1990 World Cup (for Czechoslovakia), the Czech Republic's current presence (2006) in the World Cup then emerging as their first.
• Russia's entry includes the former USSR.
• Ukraine's previous participation in the World Cup might be conjointly counted in the entry for Russia, up to Ukraine's independence, in 1991.
• Former-Yugoslavia's entry should in principle cover Slovenia (first taking part in the 2002 World Cup, as an independent nation), Croatia (now participating for the third time under its own flag), Serbia and Montenegro (joining the World Cup for the first time, now, in 2006, under their current geo-political status), and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia, not having yet qualified under their own flags for the World Cup. If FIFA's data and entries for former-Yugoslavia must be inherited by a single nation, only, then Serbia and Montenegro emerge as the likely candidate.
• Following the May 21, 2006 Referendum, according to which Serbia and Montenegro will be undergoing the process of becoming separate nations (i.e., Serbia and Montenegro), the new Serbian nation becomes the likely candidate to inherit former-Yugoslavia's statistic entries at FIFA. 
  The national squad to contest the 2006 World Cup in Germany, however, remains as Serbia and Montenegro, even if now representing two countries in the process of becoming independent from each other. It may be worth pointing out that the only Montenegrin players in the current squad were goal-keeper Dragoslav Jevric (curently playing for Ankaraspor, in Turkey) and forward Mirko Vucinic (playing for Lecce, in Italy). But the latter player was injured in a match, on May 23, being replaced in the squad by a Serbian colleague (see further information, which includes a surprising outcome, regarding this replacement). 
• Former Dutch East Indies' entry (as may be found in FIFA's statistics) should of course be credited to Indonesia, formerly under Dutch control as Dutch East Indies. Indonesia's sovereignty was recognized by the Dutch in 1949 and, on August 16, 2005, 1945 was recognized by the Dutch government as Indonesia's year of independence.

• Angola
• Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
• Ghana
• Togo
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Serbia and Montenegro (First-timer only in their current geo-political status; for they likely inherit FIFA's data for Yugoslavia – see above. This is actually the only time that the country Serbia and Montenegro will have a World Cup entry, as a result of the above-mentioned referendum.)
• Ukraine (first-timer under their own flag – see above)
• Please Note: the Czech Republic is not counted among the World Cup first timers, in the above statistics (see notes above), though there could be some who choose do it (the notes right above include also the necessary relevant figures for this case).