World Cup Qualification For South Africa 2010 - Follow the Qualification with 2014Brazil.co.uk
The nine group winners will automatically qualify for the 2010 World Cup and the eight best second placed teams will contest home and away play-off matches for the remaining four places.
In determining the rank of the second placed teams, only results against those finishing 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th will be counted.
Europe Qualification
Group 1: Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania, Malta
Group 2: Greece, Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia, Luxembourg
Group 3: Czech Republic, Poland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, San Marino
Group 4: Germany, Russia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein
Group 5: Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia, Estonia
Group 6: Croatia, England, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra
Group 7: France, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria, Faroe Islands
Group 8: Italy, Bulgaria, Republic of Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia, Montenegro
Group 9: Holland, Scotland, Norway, FYR Macedonia, Iceland
With the 2010 tournament scheduled for South Africa and the tournament likely to be in South America for 2014 , the hosts for 2018 look set to come from Europe, Asia or Oceania. Potential competition to an English bid is likely to come from; Australia, Mexico, Holland/Belgium, Spain & China.
Africa Qualification
The 48 qualifiers will be split into 12 groups of 4 teams. These teams will play a full round-robin in 2008, with the 12 groups winners and 8 best runners-up advancing to the second group round.
For the first time since 1934, the host nation will also take part in the qualifying stage. However, South Africa will also automatically qualify, regardless of where they finish.
Group 1: Cameroon, Cape Verde, Tanzania, Mauritius
Group 2: Guinea, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya
Group 3: Angola, Benin, Uganda, Niger
Group 4: Nigeria, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone
Group 5: Ghana, Libya, Gabon, Lesotho
Group 6: Senegal, Algeria, Liberia, Gambia
Group 7: Côte d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Botswana, Madagascar
Group 8: Morocco, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Mauritania
Group 9: Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Seychelles
Group 10: Mali, Congo, Sudan, Chad
Group 11: Togo, Zambia, Eritrea, Swaziland
Group 12: Egypt, Congo DR, Malawi, Djibouti
The 20 teams that qualify will be split into five mini groups of four teams. The winners of each group will qualify for the World Cup. As an added bonus the top three in each group will also qualify for the African Cup of Nations.
If South Africa advance to this stage the points will only count towards the 2010 African Cup of Nations qualifiers and not the 2010 World Cup.
If Angola advance to the second stage then all teams in the group will automatically advance to 2010 African Cup of Nations.
North, Central American, and the Caribbean
There will be two preliminary rounds which will reduce the 35 entrants, first to 24 teams and then 12; Round 1 and Round 2.
This will then be followed by three semi-final groups of four teams. The top two in each semi-final group will advance to a final six team group.
The top three teams from the final group will qualify for the World Cup. The 4th place team will compete in a home-and-away play off match against the fifth-place team from the South America group.
The countries ranked 13 to 35 make up the teams for the first stage of the qualifying rounds. St. Vincent and the Grenadines go through to the second round automatically as they received a bye in round one.
South America
There are ten teams playing eighteen rounds of football, all for for 4.5 places in the World Cup finals in 2010.
Matches are arranged so that there are always two games within a week, which is aimed at minimizing player travel time.
The top four countries in the final standings will qualify automatically for the 2010 World Cup. The 5th placed country will meet a team from North, Central American, and the Caribbean in a two-legged play-off for a place in the World Cup finals.
Oceania
Oceania is the only FIFA confederation that does not have an automatic place in the finals to take place in South Africa.
The winner of the qualification rounds will meet the fifth placed country from the Asia qualifying group on the 14th and 21st of November 2009.
The countries currently playing for this opportunity are as follows:
New Zealand
New Caledonia
Fiji
Vanuatu