2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

The Asian Football Confederation has been allocated 4.5 qualifying berths for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 43 teams are in the running for these spots; Laos, Brunei and Philippines will not attempt to qualify. This will be the first time Timor-Leste has competed in World Cup qualification and the first time Australia has attempted to qualify for the World Cup as a member of the AFC, having moved from the Oceania Football Confederation at the start of 2006.

eeding

The initial seeding (used in the draw for the first two rounds) was based on each team's performance during the "qualification" stage for the previous World Cup. [ [http://www.the-afc.com/eng/articles/viewArticle.jsp_8388.html 2010 FIFA World Cup: AFC announces seedings, qualification process] ] The admission of Australia to the AFC complicated matters slightly (as they had not taken part in the previous AFC qualification cycle, but had progressed to the World Cup finals in Germany - and had advanced further than the AFC qualifiers).

Initially, the AFC placed Australia as the first seed even though this contradicted the letter of the seeding - past practice (such as adopted by the AFC in the draw for the qualification to the 2008 Olympic Football Tournament) would have seeded Australia last.

By the time of the main qualification draw in Durban (which included the AFC third round), the seeding had been adjusted to rank the top 5 AFC nations according to their performance in the "World Cup Final Tournament". This resulted in minor changes to the seeding at that point.

eeding for the first and second rounds

Teams ranked 1–5 get a bye from the first two knockout stages and are entered into the third round group stage.
Teams ranked 6–43 enter at the first round, with teams ranked from 6–24 drawn against teams ranked from 25–43.
Of the first round winners, the eight lowest remaining seeds go on to play the second round. The other teams get a bye to the third round group stage. [ [http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/2010_fwc_qualification_format_asia_en_17176.pdf Asian Zone Competition Format] ]

Groups

The teams in each group played each other twice, once home and once away. The teams that finished first and second in their group qualified for the fourth round.

Group 1

Group 4

eeding for the fourth round

The 10 qualifiers were drawn into two groups of five teams at the draw in Kuala Lumpur on 27 June 2008. The seeding for the fourth round was based on that used in the third round draw, but Saudi Arabia and Japan (seeded equal 4th in that draw) were separated by a random selection held at the start of the fourth round draw. [cite news|url=http://www.the-afc.com/eng/articles/viewArticle.jsp_167182448.html|title=FWCQ fourth round draw mechanics|date=2008-06-12|publisher=The-AFC.com|accessdate=2008-06-13]

The top 6 ranked qualifiers were split into 3 pots of 2 teams, with the bottom 4 ranked nations grouped together in a separate pot. Each group was allocated 1 team from each of Pots 1, 2 and 3, and 2 teams from Pot 4.

Play-offs

Fifth placed AFC team playoff

Teams finishing 3rd in the fourth round groups play each other for 5th place overall. The winner will be the team with the highest aggregate score over two legs. The matches are scheduled for 10 October 2009 and 14 October 2009.

The order that the two matches will be played is yet to be determined.

Asia-Oceania playoff

The 5th place team will then play the winner of the OFC qualifying group, New Zealand, in a home and away play-off. The winner of this play-off will qualify for the 2010 World Cup finals. The matches are scheduled for 14 November 2009 and 21 November 2009. [cite news |url=http://the-afc.com/eng/articles/viewArticle.jsp_167051315.html |title= FWCQ: Fourth round draw on June 27 |work= AFC |accessdate= 2008-07-05]

The order that the two matches will be played is yet to be determined.

Goalscorers

As of 2 June 2008; Players in bold are still active in the competition.

Key:
*— Bye
*X Eliminated

;1 goal;fb|AFG
*Obaidullah Karimi

;fb|AUS
*Mark Bresciano
*Tim Cahill
*Joshua Kennedy
*Scott Chipperfield

;fb|BHR
*Mahmood Abdulrahman
*Abdulla Baba Fatadi
*Jesse John
*Ismaeel Latif
*Sayed Mohamed Adnan

;fb|BAN
*Zumratul Hossein Mithu

;fb|CAM
*Samel Nasa

;fb|CHN
*Du Zhenyu
*Li Jinyu
*Li Weifeng
*Liu Jian
*Sun Xiang
*Wei Wei'an
*Yu Lin
*Zhang Yaokun
*Zheng Jin
*Zheng Zhi
*Zhou Haibin

;fb|HKG
*Cheung Sai Ho
*Lam Ka Wai
*Lo Kwan Yee

;fb|IND
*Steven Dias

;fb|IDN
*Budi Sudarsono

;fb|IRN
*Alireza Vahedi Nikbakht
*Jalal Hosseini
*Fereydoun Zandi
*Mohsen Khalili
*Javad Nekounam

;fb|IRQ
*Jassim Mohammed Ghulam
*Hawar Mulla Mohammed

;fb|JPN
*Yasuhito Endo
*Seiichiro Maki
*Shunsuke Nakamura
*Atsuto Uchida

;fb|JOR
*Waseem Al Bzoor
*Hatem Aqel
*Thaer Bawab
*Mahmoud Shelbaieh

;fb|PRK
*Hong Yong-Jo
*Jon Kwang-Il
*Kim Kuk-Jin

;fb|KOR
*Kwak Tae-Hwi

;fb|KUW
*Fahad Al-Rashidi

;fb|LIB
*Roda Antar
*Amer Khan

;fb|KGZ
*Aibek Bokoev
*Cholponbek Esenkul Uulu

;fb|MAS
*Mohd Bunyamin Umar

;fb|MDV
*Ali Ashfaq
*Shamveel Qasim

;fb|MGL
*Lumbengarav Donorov
*Odkhuu Selenge

;fb|OMA
*Mohamed Al Hinai
*Fawzi Bashir
*Hashim Saleh Mohamed
*Hassan Mudhafar
*Ismail Sulaiman

;fb|QAT
*Saad Al-Shammari

;fb|KSA
*Osama Hawsawi
*Malek Mouath
*Redha Tukar

;fb|SIN
*Mustafic Fahrudin
*Fazrul Nawaz

;fb|SYR
*Maher Al Sayed
*Aatef Jenyat
*Ali Dyab

;fb|TJK
*Dzhomikhon Mukhiddinov
*Dilshod Vasiev

;fb|THA
*Patiparn Phetphun
*Tawan Sripan
*Suree Sukha
*Nirut Surasiang

;fb|TKM
*Mekan Nasirov

;fb|UAE
*Nawaf Al-Darmaki
*Ahmed Al-Mahri
*Saeed Alkas
*Faisal Khalil
*Ismail Matar
*Basheer Saeed

;fb|UZB
*Odil Ahmedov
*Ulugbek Bakayev
*Vitaly Denisov
*Aziz Igragimov
*Islom Inomov
*Shavkat Salomov
*Ilhomjon Suyunov
*Victor Karpenko

;fb|YEM
*Ali Al Nono
*Fekri Al-Hubaishi
*Mohammed Salem
*Haitham Thabit

;Own goals;fb|LIB
*Ramez Dayoub for Singapore ;fb|TLS
*Alfredo Esteves for Hong Kong

ee also

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

References

External links

* [http://www.the-afc.com/eng/competitions/news/index.jsp_WC-07-11-520-1.html AFC Qualification 2010 Official Website]
* [http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/asia/matches/index.html Asian zone] at FIFA.com