2010 FIFA World Cup qualification
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This article documents a current sports-related event. Information may change as the event progresses. |
In the qualification process for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the six FIFA confederations were allocated a share of the 31 spots available on the basis of the strength of their teams. The final distribution was as follows[1]:
- Europe (UEFA): 13 places
- Africa (CAF) : 5 places (South Africa qualified automatically as host nation for a total of 6 places)
- South America (CONMEBOL) : 4.5 places
- Asia (AFC) : 4.5 places
- North, Central American and Caribbean (
CONCACAF ) : 3.5 places - Oceania (OFC) : 0.5 places (not guaranteed a position).
Each .5 indicates a place in inter-confederation matchups for the last two spots, namely a playoff between CONMEBOL and CONCACAF and another between the OFC and AFC.
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 four AFC members: Bhutan, 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.[2]
Qualified teams
The following teams have qualified to date.
| Team | Finals Appearance | Streak | Last Appearance | Best Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 South Africa (h) |
3rd | 1 | 2002 | 1st Round (1998, 2002) |
(h) = Qualified automatically as hosts.
Qualification Groups
The qualification process will commence in August 2007 and be completed by November 2009. An initial draw for preliminary qualification (qualifying groups in Oceania, and knockout ties in CAF and the 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 will be held in Durban, South Africa on November 25 2007 (34 teams will have been eliminated before the actual draw - 6 from the OFC, 5 from CAF and 23 from the AFC). CONMEBOL qualification will also have started, and there will be no draw for this confederation, as all 10 members will play in the same group, and the order of fixtures will be the same as for the 2006 qualification rounds. Therefore, the draw of 25th November will involve 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), AFC (20 entries in draw (original 43 minus 23 1st and 2nd round losers) and CONCACAF (35 entries in draw).
As the host nation, South Africa qualifies automatically. Like in 2006, the holders - Italy - do not qualify automatically. If they do qualify they will be seeded similar to the way Brazil was in the 2006 tournament.
Africa (CAF)
(53 teams competing for 6 berths, including South Africa as host)
The CAF qualification process will begin with a preliminary round to be played on 13 October and 17 November to narrow the field to 48 teams, and then groups will be drawn in Durban in November 2007.[3]
The qualifying competition for the 2010 World Cup will be 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 may (unlike hosts in previous qualifying tournaments) play in the qualifiers themselves to facilitate the African Cup of Nations version of the qualifiers.
Asia (AFC)
(43 teams competing for 4 or 5 berths, playoff against Oceania to determine exact number)
Two preliminary rounds (one in October and one in the first half of November) will narrow the field from 43 to 20 prior to the group stage draw in Durban on 25 November 2007.[3]
The group stage draw will divide the 20 remaining sides into 5 groups of 4, from which the winners and runners-up will advance to the final group stage (to be played from February to September 2008. The winners and runners-up from 2 final groups of 5 nations (playing from November 2008 to September 2009) will qualify automatically for the World Cup finals, with the 2 third-placed sides playing off in October 2009 for the right to compete against the Oceania winner for a final qualification spot (with matches played in November 2009).
The knock-out preliminary rounds themselves are 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).
Europe (UEFA)
(53 teams competing for 13 berths)
The European qualification games will start in September 2008 after EURO 2008.[3] 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.[4]
North, Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF)
(35 teams competing for 3 or 4 berths, with playoff against South America to determine exact number)
The proposed CONCACAF qualification process[5] is identical to that for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, except that as Puerto Rico will be competing this time (they were the only CONCACAF member not to enter 2006 qualification), there will be 11 matches instead of 10 in the first preliminary round, and thus 13 teams instead of 14 will receive a bye to the second preliminary round. The two preliminary rounds (likely to occur in the first half of 2008) would reduce the 35 entrants to 24 and then 12 teams, followed by 3 semifinal groups of 4 (likely to occur in the second half of 2008), with the top two in each group advancing to a final 6-team group (timeframe of all of 2009).
Oceania (OFC)
(10 teams competing for 0 or 1 berth, playoff with Asia to determine exact number. Tuvalu will also play in the qualifying tournament, but is 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, playing home and away. The top team will then play a home and away playoff with an Asian nation for a final's berth. [3]
South America (CONMEBOL)
(10 teams competing for 4 or 5 berths, playoff against North and Central America and the Caribbean to determine exact number)
The CONMEBOL qualification process will again feature a league system (home and away matches) for a single group of 10 associations, with matches commencing in October 2007. The fixture list will be 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 eight 'double match days' (with two sets of matches held within a few days of each other) and with the remaining 2 rounds (the fifth and sixth) being held in the European off-season. The announced match days (which may vary by a day to either side) are:
2007 - October 13 and 17, November 17 and 21.
2008 - June 6 and 29, September 6 and 10, October 11 and 15.
2009 - March 28 and April 1, June 6 and 10, September 5 and 9, October 10 and 14.
November 14 and 18, 2009 would be the dates for the playoff against
Top Goalscorers
| Pos | Scorer | Goals | Nation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Osea Vakatalesau | 10 |  Fiji |
| 2 | Seule Soromon | 8 |  Vanuatu |
| 3 | Commins Menapi | 7 |  Solomon Islands |
| 4 | Sarayoot Chaikamdee | 5 |  Thailand |
| Iamel Kabeu |  New Caledonia |
||
| Maksim Shatskikh |  Uzbekistan |
||
| 7 | Fanaia Adriatsima | 4 |  Madagascar |
| Henry Fa'arodo | Solomon Islands |
||
| Roy Krishna | Fiji |
||
| Etienne Mermer | Vanuatu |
||
| Benjamin Totori | Solomon Islands |
||
| 12 | Pita Baleitoga | 3 | Fiji |
| Pita Rabo | Fiji |
||
| Francois Sakama | Vanuatu |
References
- ^ FIFA (2006-12-06). Clear declaration to defend the autonomy of sport. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-12-06.
- ^ FIFA (2007-03-30). Record number of 204 teams enter preliminary competition. Press release. Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
- ^ a b c d
- ^ EXCO unveils World Cup programme
- ^
CONCACAF (2007-03-27). CONCACAF Exco meets in Netherlands Antilles. Press release. Retrieved on 2007-03-29.
| 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers |
|---|
|
Africa | Asia | Europe | North, Central America and Caribbean | Oceania | South America |
| FIFA World Cup qualification |
|---|
|
Italy 1934 | France 1938 | Brazil 1950 | Switzerland 1954 | Sweden 1958 | Chile 1962 | England 1966 | Mexico 1970 | West Germany 1974 | Argentina 1978 | Spain 1982 | Mexico 1986 | Italy 1990 | USA 1994 | France 1998 | Korea/Japan 2002 | Germany 2006 | South Africa 2010 |
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