2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

In the qualification process for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the six FIFA confederations were allocated a share of the 31 remaining spots on the basis of the strength of their teams. The distribution is: [cite press release| title = Clear declaration to defend the autonomy of sport| publisher = FIFA| date = 2006-12-06| url = http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/federation/releases/newsid=108198.html| accessdate = 2006-12-06]

* Europe (UEFA): 13 places
* Africa (CAF): 5 places (South Africa qualified automatically as host nation for a total of 6 places)
* South America (CONMEBOL): 4 or 5 places
* Asia (AFC): 4 or 5 places
* North, Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 3 or 4 places
* Oceania (OFC): 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:
*CONCACAF 4th place v CONMEBOL 5th place
*AFC 5th place v OFC winner

At the close of entries on 15 March 2007, 204 out of the 208 FIFA members (including hosts South Africa) had entered the preliminary qualifying competition for the 2010 World Cup.

Only three AFC members: Brunei, Laos and the Philippines had failed to register for the tournament.

Bhutan were allowed to enter at the last minute and were included in the Asian preliminary draw, Papua New Guinea were disqualified from the Oceania Preliminary competition, and Brunei and the Philippines had their entries rejected (having missed the deadline). The final number of teams entered breaks the previous record of 199 entrants set in 2002. [cite press release| title = Record number of 204 teams enter preliminary competition| publisher = FIFA| date = 2007-03-30| url = http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/media/newsid=122766.html| accessdate = 2007-06-02] However, five of those teams withdrew during qualifying: Bhutan, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Guam and São Tomé and Príncipe.

Qualified teams

Europe (UEFA)

"(53 teams competing for 13 berths)"

The European qualification games started in August 2008 after EURO 2008. [http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/regulations/index.html FIFA.com ] ] Eight groups of six teams and one group of five will contest the European qualifying competition. As a result the nine group-winners will qualify directly, while the best eight of the nine second-placed teams will contest home and away play-off matches for the remaining four places. [ [http://www.uefa.com/uefa/keytopics/kind=64/newsid=554858.html EXCO unveils World Cup programme] ]

Current positions

outh 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 will qualify to the World Cup finals, the 5th team will go to a playoff against the 4th-place CONCACAF team, which would be played on November 14 and 18, 2009.

Current positions

References

External links

* [http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/matches/index.html 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa matches and results] at FIFA.com
* [http://www.fifa.com/live/competitions/worldcup/preliminarydraw/drawcast.html Live Preliminary Draw]