The qualification competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is an ongoing series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North America), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oceania), and UEFA (Europe) — was allocated a certain number of the 32 places at the tournament, based upon the relative strength and size of the confederations. A total of 204 teams entered the qualification process, with South Africa, as the host, qualifying automatically. The first qualification matches were played on 25 August 2007 and qualification is scheduled to conclude on 18 November 2009.

Contents 1 Entrants 2 Summary of remaining qualification 3 Qualified teams 4 Qualification process 4.1 Tiebreakers 5 Confederation qualification processes 5.1 Africa (CAF) 5.1.1 Current positions (Third Round) 5.2 Asia (AFC) 5.2.1 Final positions (Fourth Round) 5.2.2 Play-off for 5th place (Fifth Round) 5.3 Europe (UEFA) 5.3.1 Final positions (First Round) 5.3.2 Second Round 5.4 North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF) 5.4.1 Final positions (Fourth Round) 5.5 Oceania (OFC) 5.5.1 Final positions (Second Round) 5.6 South America (CONMEBOL) 5.6.1 Final positions 6 Inter-confederation play-offs 6.1 AFC 5th place v OFC winner 6.2 CONCACAF 4th place v CONMEBOL 5th place 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Entrants

At the close of entries on 15 March 2007, 204 football associations had entered the preliminary competition: 203 out of the 207 FIFA members at that time (including the host nation, South Africa, as the qualification procedure in Africa also acted as the qualification for the 2010 African Cup of Nations) and the Montenegro team, which later became FIFA's 208th member. The final number of teams entered breaks the previous record of 199 entrants set during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Four FIFA members (all from the AFC) failed to register for the tournament: Bhutan, Brunei, Laos, and the Philippines.^[1]

After the close of entries, Bhutan were allowed to enter and were included in the Asian preliminary draw, while Brunei and the Philippines had their late entries rejected.^{[citation needed]}

However, five teams withdrew during qualifying without playing a match: Bhutan, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Guam, and São Tomé and Príncipe. In addition, Papua New Guinea failed to meet the registration deadline for the South Pacific Games (which was also the initial stage of the Oceania qualification) and took no part in qualification.

[edit] Summary of remaining qualification

	Team qualified for the World Cup.
	Team may still qualify for the World Cup.
	Team cannot qualify for the World Cup, but still has qualifying matches left.
	Team eliminated from World Cup qualifying.
	Country did not enter World Cup.
	Country is not part of FIFA.

Confederation	Teams started	Teams that have secured qualification	Teams that can still qualify	Teams that have been eliminated	Remaining Places in Finals	Total Places in finals	Qualifying end date
UEFA	53	9	8	36	4	13	18 November 2009
CAF	52+1	2+1	6	44	3	5+1	14 November 2009
CONCACAF	35	3	1	31	1	3 or 4	18 November 2009
CONMEBOL	10	4	1	5		4 or 5	18 November 2009
AFC	43	4	1	38	1	4 or 5	14 November 2009
OFC	10	0	1	9		0 or 1	14 November 2009
Total	203+1	22+1	18	163	9	31+1	18 November 2009

Legend for Confederation Standings
Confederations still playing qualifying matches
Confederations playing intercontinental playoffs
Confederations that have finished qualifying matches

[edit] Qualified teams

The following 23 teams have qualified to date, in chronological order:

Team	Qualified As	Date of Qualification	Finals Appearance	Consecutive Qualifications	Last Appearance	Previous Best Performance	Current[q 1] FIFA Ranking [2]
South Africa	Host	0015 May 2004	03 3rd	1	2002	21 Group Stage (1998, 2002)	85
Japan	AFC Fourth Round Group A Runners-Up	016 June 2009	04 4th	4	2006	19 Round of 16 (2002)	40
Australia	AFC Fourth Round Group A Winners	026 June 2009	03 3rd	2	2006	18 Round of 16 (2006)	24
Korea Republic	AFC Fourth Round Group B Winners	036 June 2009	08 8th	7	2006	12 Fourth Place (2002)	48
Netherlands	UEFA First Round Group 9 Winners	046 June 2009	09 9th	2	2006	06 Runners-Up (1974, 1978)	3
Korea DPR	AFC Fourth Round Group B Runners-Up	0517 June 2009	02 2nd	1	1966	16 Quarterfinals (1966)	91
Brazil	CONMEBOL Winners	065 September 2009	19 19th	19	2006	01 Winners (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002)	1
Ghana	CAF Third Round Group D Winners	076 September 2009	02 2nd	2	2006	18 Round of 16 (2006)	38
England	UEFA First Round Group 6 Winners	089 September 2009	13 13th	4	2006	05 Winners (1966)	7
Spain	UEFA First Round Group 5 Winners	099 September 2009	13 13th	9	2006	11 Fourth Place (1950)	2
Paraguay	CONMEBOL Third Place	109 September 2009	08 8th	4	2006	17 Round of 16 (1986, 1998, 2002)	21
Côte d'Ivoire	CAF Third Round Group E Winners	1110 October 2009	02 2nd	2	2006	22 Group Stage (2006)	19
Germany	UEFA First Round Group 4 Winners	1210 October 2009	17 17th[q 2]	15[q 2]	2006	03 Winners (1954, 1974, 1990)[q 2]	5
Denmark	UEFA First Round Group 1 Winners	1310 October 2009	04 4th	1	2002	15 Quarterfinals (1998)	27
Serbia	UEFA First Round Group 7 Winners	1410 October 2009	11 11th[q 3]	2[q 3]	2006[q 3]	10 Fourth Place (1930, 1962)[q 3][q 4]	20
Italy	UEFA First Round Group 8 Winners	1510 October 2009	17 17th	13	2006	02 Winners (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006)	4
Chile	CONMEBOL Runners-Up	1610 October 2009	08 8th	1	1998	09 Third Place (1962)	17
Mexico	CONCACAF Fourth Round Runners-Up	1710 October 2009	14 14th	5	2006	14 Quarterfinals (1970, 1986)	18
United States	CONCACAF Fourth Round Winners	1810 October 2009	09 9th	6	2006	08 Third Place (1930)[q 4]	11
Switzerland	UEFA First Round Group 2 Winners	1914 October 2009	09 9th	2	2006	13 Quarterfinals (1934, 1938, 1954)	13
Slovakia	UEFA First Round Group 3 Winners	2014 October 2009	09 9th[q 5]	1	1990[q 5]	06 Runners-Up (1934, 1962)[q 5]	33
Argentina	CONMEBOL Fourth Place	2114 October 2009	15 15th	10	2006	04 Winners (1978, 1986)	6
Honduras	CONCACAF Fourth Round Third Place	2214 October 2009	02 2nd	1	1982	22 Group Stage (1982)	35

Notes

[edit] Qualification process

The qualification process commenced in August 2007 and will be completed in November 2009. An initial draw for preliminary qualification (qualifying groups in Oceania, and knockout ties in CAF and AFC) had been announced for Zurich on 28 May 2007, but none was held.

Initial groups for the Oceania qualification were eventually held in Auckland, New Zealand in early June, with preliminary draws for the Asian and African qualification announced in August.

The draw for the main 2010 World Cup qualifying groups was held in Durban, South Africa on 25 November 2007. 34 teams had been eliminated before the actual draw — 6 from OFC, 5 from CAF and 23 from AFC — and CONMEBOL qualification also had started (no draw was required for this confederation, as all 10 members play in the same group, with the order of fixtures the same as for the 2006 qualification rounds). The 4 remaining teams from OFC had also started playing the final stage as a single group, and no draw was needed. Therefore, the draw of 25 November involved 156 FIFA members from the original 205 entries, divided as follows: UEFA–53 entries in draw; CAF–48 entries in draw (original 53 minus 5 preliminary round losers and withdrawals); AFC–20 entries in draw (original 43 minus 23 1st and 2nd round losers and withdrawals); and CONCACAF–35 entries in draw.

The distribution by conference for the 2010 World Cup is:^[4]

• Europe (UEFA): 13 places
• Africa (CAF): 5 places (+ South Africa qualified automatically as host nation for a total of 6 places)
• Asia (AFC): 4 or 5 places
• South America (CONMEBOL) 4 or 5 places
• North, Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 3 or 4 places
• Oceania (Oceania Football Confederation): 0 or 1 place

UEFA and CAF have a guaranteed number of places, the number of qualifiers from other confederations is dependent on play-offs between the highest placed teams in the qualification tournaments not guaranteed a place in the finals, with CONCACAF's fourth-place team facing CONMEBOL's fifth-placed team, and AFC's fifth-placed team facing the winner of the OFC.

As the host nation, South Africa qualifies automatically. As in 2006, the holders - Italy - did not qualify automatically. They will be seeded similarly to the way Brazil was in the 2006 tournament.

[edit] Tiebreakers

For FIFA World Cup qualifying stages the method used for separating teams level on points is the same for all Confederations, as decided by FIFA itself.^[5] If teams are even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams will be ranked by:

1. goal difference in all group matches
2. greater number of goals scored in all group matches
3. greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams
4. goal difference in matches between the tied teams
5. greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams
6. drawing of lots, or a play-off (if approved by FIFA)

This is a change from 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification, where results between tied teams was the first tiebreaker.

[edit] Confederation qualification processes

[edit] Africa (CAF)

(53 teams competing for 5 berths, host South Africa occupying a 6th berth)

The CAF qualification process began with a preliminary round played on 13 October and 17 November 2007 to narrow the field to 48 teams, and then 12 groups of 4 teams were drawn in Durban in November 2007.^[6]

The 12 groups winners and 8 best runners-up advanced to the next stage. The procedure was complicated due to two of the groups being reduced to just 3 teams due to the withdrawal of Eritrea (before the commencement of the group) and the exclusion of Ethiopia (which saw all their results annulled). As a result, the comparison of the 12 runners-up did not include results against teams finishing fourth in 4-team groups.

The remaining 20 teams were placed in 5 groups of 4 teams at a draw held in Zurich on 22 October 2008. The winners of these groups will qualify to the World Cup finals.

The qualifying competition for the 2010 World Cup is combined with the qualification process for the 2010 African Cup of Nations. Since South Africa is hosting the World Cup, it has automatically qualified, although it (unlike hosts in previous qualifying tournaments since 1938) played in the qualifiers themselves to facilitate the use of the same set of qualifying matches for the 2010 African Cup of Nations.

Had South Africa advanced to the third round (second group stage), their matches would not have been counted in determining who advances to the World Cup finals. However, South Africa were eliminated from the qualifiers after the second round. This means that they cannot qualify for the African Cup of Nations, and all matches in Round 3 count towards World Cup qualification.

• Next match day: 14 November (9 matches, with a total of 10 matches left ending on 15 November).

Legend for Qualifying Countries
Countries that have qualified for the 2010 World Cup and 2010 African Cup of Nations
Countries that have qualified for the 2010 African Cup of Nations
Countries that cannot qualify for the 2010 World Cup but can qualify for the 2010 African Cup of Nations
Countries that can no longer qualify for either tournament

[edit] Current positions (Third Round)

Group A Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Cameroon 5 10  Gabon 5 9  Togo 5 5  Morocco 5 3	Group B Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Tunisia 5 11  Nigeria 5 9  Mozambique 5 4  Kenya 5 3	Group C Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Algeria 5 13  Egypt 5 10  Zambia 5 4  Rwanda 5 1
Group D Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Ghana 5 12  Mali 5 8  Benin 5 7  Sudan 5 1	Group E Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Côte d'Ivoire 5 13  Burkina Faso 5 9  Malawi 5 4  Guinea 5 3

[edit] Asia (AFC)

(43 teams competing for 4 or 5 berths; a playoff against OFC determines which confederation gets the extra berth)

Two preliminary rounds (one in October 2007 and one in the first half of November) narrowed the field from 43 to 20 prior to the group stage draw in Durban on 25 November 2007.^[6]

The group stage draw divided the 20 remaining sides into 5 groups of 4, which were played from February to June 2008, from which the winners and runners-up advanced to the final group stage. The winners and runners-up from 2 final groups of 5 nations (playing from September 2008 to June 2009) will qualify automatically for the World Cup finals, with the 2 third-placed sides playing off in September 2009 for the right to compete against the Oceania winner for a final qualification spot (with matches played in October and November 2009).

The knock-out preliminary rounds themselves were somewhat unusual, with all 38 AFC sides that did not qualify for the 2006 World Cup playing in the first knock-out round, but the 11 best-ranked winners from that round receiving byes in the second round (and only the 8 lowest-ranked winners competing to reduce the fields of teams to 20).

Legend for Qualifying Countries
Countries that have qualified for the 2010 World Cup
Countries that advanced to the AFC play-off

[edit] Final positions (Fourth Round)

Group A Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Australia 8 20  Japan 8 15  Bahrain 8 10  Qatar 8 6  Uzbekistan 8 4

Group B Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Korea Republic 8 16  Korea DPR 8 12  Saudi Arabia 8 12  Iran 8 11  United Arab Emirates 8 1

[edit] Play-off for 5th place (Fifth Round)

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Bahrain	(a) 2–2	Saudi Arabia	0–0	2–2

2 – 2 on aggregate; Bahrain advanced on the away goals rule to the AFC-OFC playoff against New Zealand, the winner of the OFC zone (2008 OFC Nations Cup).

[edit] Europe (UEFA)

(53 teams competing for 13 berths)

The European qualification games started in August 2008 after Euro 2008.^[6] Eight groups of six teams and one group of five contested the European qualifying competition. As a result, the nine group-winners qualified directly, while the best eight of the nine second-placed teams will contest home and away play-off matches for the remaining four places.^[7] In determining the best eight second-placed teams, the results against teams finishing last in the six-team groups were not counted for consistency between the five- and six-team groups.

The First Round was completed on 14 October 2009. A draw for the Second Round was held in Zurich on 19 October, with the matches to be held on 14 and 18 November.

• Next match day: 14 November (4 matches, with a total of 8 matches left ending on 18 November).

Legend for Qualifying Countries
Countries that have qualified for the 2010 World Cup
Countries that advanced to the Second Round

[edit] Final positions (First Round)

Group 1 Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Denmark 10 21  Portugal 10 19  Sweden 10 18  Hungary 10 16  Albania 10 7  Malta 10 1	Group 2 Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Switzerland 10 21  Greece 10 20  Latvia 10 17  Israel 10 16  Luxembourg 10 5  Moldova 10 3	Group 3 Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Slovakia 10 22  Slovenia 10 20  Czech Republic 10 16  Northern Ireland 10 15  Poland 10 11  San Marino 10 0
Group 4 Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Germany 10 26  Russia 10 22  Finland 10 18  Wales 10 12  Azerbaijan 10 5  Liechtenstein 10 2	Group 5 Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Spain 10 30  Bosnia and Herzegovina 10 19  Turkey 10 15  Belgium 10 10  Estonia 10 8  Armenia 10 4	Group 6 Team v • d • e Pld Pts  England 10 27  Ukraine 10 21  Croatia 10 20  Belarus 10 13  Kazakhstan 10 6  Andorra 10 0
Group 7 Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Serbia 10 22  France 10 21  Austria 10 14  Lithuania 10 12  Romania 10 12  Faroe Islands 10 4	Group 8 Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Italy 10 24  Republic of Ireland 10 18  Bulgaria 10 14  Cyprus 10 9  Montenegro 10 9  Georgia 10 3	Group 9 Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Netherlands 8 24  Norway 8 10  Scotland 8 10  Macedonia 8 7  Iceland 8 5

[edit] Second Round

The Second Round will be contested by the top eight runners up. With one group having one team fewer than the others, matches against the sixth-placed team in each of the other groups are not included in this ranking.

Grp	Team v • d • e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
4	Russia	8	5	1	2	15	6	+9	16
2	Greece	8	5	1	2	16	9	+7	16
6	Ukraine	8	4	3	1	10	6	+4	15
7	France	8	4	3	1	12	9	+3	15
3	Slovenia	8	4	2	2	10	4	+6	14
5	Bosnia and Herzegovina	8	4	1	3	19	12	+7	13
1	Portugal	8	3	4	1	9	5	+4	13
8	Republic of Ireland	8	2	6	0	8	6	+2	12
9	Norway	8	2	4	2	9	7	+2	10

Teams shaded blue finished second-place in their group and qualified to the Second Round. Norway finished second-place in their group but did not qualify for a Second Round position.

The draw for the second round play-offs was held in Zürich on 19 October, and the matches will be played on 14 and 18 November 2009. The eight teams were seeded according to the FIFA World Rankings released on 16 October. The top four teams were seeded into one pot, with the bottom four teams seeded into a second. A separate draw was conducted between each matchup to decide who will host the first leg.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Republic of Ireland	–	France	14 Nov	18 Nov
Portugal	–	Bosnia and Herzegovina	14 Nov	18 Nov
Greece	–	Ukraine	14 Nov	18 Nov
Russia	–	Slovenia	14 Nov	18 Nov

[edit] North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF)

(35 teams competing for 3 or 4 berths; a playoff against CONMEBOL determines which confederation gets the extra berth)

The CONCACAF qualification process^[8] is identical to that for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification, except that as Puerto Rico competed this time (they were the only CONCACAF member not to enter 2006 qualification), there were 11 matches instead of 10 in the first preliminary round, and thus 13 teams instead of 14 received a bye to the second preliminary round. The two preliminary rounds, played in the first half of 2008, reduced the 35 entrants to 24 and then 12 teams. 3 semi-final groups of 4 were played between August and November 2008, with the top two in each group advancing to a final 6-team group held during 2009. The top 3 of this group qualified for the World Cup finals; the 4th-place team advancing to the playoff against the 5th-place CONMEBOL team.

Legend for Qualifying Countries
Countries that have qualified for the 2010 World Cup
Country that advanced to the CONCACAF-CONMEBOL playoff

• The qualification for this zone ended on 14 October 2009.

[edit] Final positions (Fourth Round)

Team v • d • e Pld Pts  United States 10 20  Mexico 10 19  Honduras 10 16  Costa Rica 10 16  El Salvador 10 8  Trinidad and Tobago 10 6

[edit] Oceania (OFC)

(10 teams competing for 0 or 1 berth; a playoff against AFC determines which confederation gets the extra berth. Tuvalu also played in the qualifying tournament, but was not an entrant to the World Cup qualification)

The qualification process began with a tournament at the 2007 South Pacific Games in August 2007. The top three (New Caledonia, Fiji, and Vanuatu, respectively) joined New Zealand in a 4-team group, which was also the 2008 OFC Nations Cup, playing home and away. The winner would play a home and away playoff with the fifth-place Asian nation for a World Cup berth.^[6]

• In this zone, the qualifications finished on 19 November 2008.

[edit] Final positions (Second Round)

Team Pld Pts  New Zealand 6 15  New Caledonia 6 8  Fiji 6 7  Vanuatu 6 4

New Zealand advanced to the AFC-OFC playoff, against Bahrain, the 5th-placed team of AFC.

[edit] South America (CONMEBOL)

(10 teams competing for 4 or 5 berths; a playoff against CONCACAF determines which confederation gets the extra berth)

The CONMEBOL qualification process again features a league system (home and away matches) for a single group of 10 associations, with matches played from October 2007 to October 2009. The fixture list is identical to that used in the qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. To limit the amount of travel by European-based players to South America, CONMEBOL's schedule uses nine 'double match days' (with two sets of matches held within a few days of each other). The top 4 teams qualified for the World Cup finals; the 5th-place team advancing to a playoff against the 4th-place CONCACAF team.

• The qualification for this zone ended on 14 October 2009.

Legend for Qualifying Countries
Countries that have qualified for the 2010 World Cup
Country that advanced to the CONCACAF-CONMEBOL playoff

[edit] Final positions

Team v • d • e Pld Pts  Brazil 18 34  Chile 18 33  Paraguay 18 33  Argentina 18 28  Uruguay 18 24  Ecuador 18 23  Colombia 18 23  Venezuela 18 22  Bolivia 18 15  Peru 18 13

[edit] Inter-confederation play-offs

There are two scheduled inter-confederation playoffs to determine the final two qualification spots to the finals. The ties themselves were not drawn, but were allocated by FIFA as:

• AFC 5th place v OFC winner
• CONCACAF 4th place v CONMEBOL 5th place

The draw for the order in which the matches will be played was held on 2 June 2009 during the FIFA Congress in Nassau, the Bahamas.^[9]

[edit] AFC 5th place v OFC winner

The winner of the OFC qualification tournament will play the winner of the play-off between the two third-placed teams in the AFC qualification round four (considered to be the 5th placed team in the AFC). New Zealand qualified for the play-off by winning the OFC competition in September 2008. Bahrain qualified for the play-off by winning the AFC Fifth placed play-off in September 2009.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Bahrain	0–0	New Zealand	0–0	14 November

[edit] CONCACAF 4th place v CONMEBOL 5th place

The fourth-place team in the CONCACAF qualifying fourth round (Costa Rica) will enter into a play-off against the fifth-place team in the CONMEBOL qualifying group (Uruguay). The participants were not decided until the final day of qualifying in both confederations on 14 October 2009.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Costa Rica		Uruguay	14 November	18 November

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa matches and results at FIFA.com
• Live Preliminary Draw

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