Fixtures

The race for the 2010 World Cup begins with the qualifying campaign, which was drawn in Durban, South Africa on 23rd November 2007 in a huge event attended by more than 3000 FIFA delegates.

The draw for the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign threw up some interesting fixtures, not least England’s revenge mission against Croatia, who denied them a place at the EURO 2008 finals.

32 teams will qualify for the 2010 World Cup. More details about the World Cup qualifying campaign can be found here.

In this section, we provide the latest fixtures & results for the 2010 World Cup, broken down by section.

2010 World Cup Qualifying Section - Europe

Fifty three teams enter the 2010 World Cup competing for 13 of the 32 spaces at the Finals in South Africa. The qualifying campaign for Europe begins in September 2008 after the completion of the EURO 2008 finals.

The European section has been split into eight groups of six teams and one group of five teams. The nine group winners qualify automatically for the Finals, with the eight best group runners up being drawn in two legged play-offs to determine the remaining for spots. In fairness to the 9th group (with only five teams), only games against the top 5 teams will count when determining the best placed runners up.

Despite winning the 2006 World Cup, Italy do not automatically qualify as holders. This rule was recently changed by FIFA as holders were complaining that playing two years of uncompetitive matches was harming their preparation for the subsequent finals.

2010 World Cup Qualifying Section - Africa

The CAF will receive six spaces at the 2010 Finals, including South Africa, who qualify as the host nation. This leaves 53 nations competing for the remaining five spaces.

This was narrowed down to 48 teams with a preliminary qualifying round for the smaller nations in late 2007 and 12 groups of four teams were drawn. All group winners and the 8 best runners-up advance to the next stage of the qualifying, where they will compete in five groups of four, with the group winners qualifying for the 2010 World Cup Finals.

As a result of the vast number of games African countries have to play to qualify, the qualifying campaign will also serve to determine qualification for the 2010 African Nations Cup finals. For this reason, South Africa will also participate in the qualifying campaign, however their presence at the 2010 World Cup finals is assured, even if they fail during the qualifying process.

The African qualifying campaign is always very interesting. While the European and South American qualifying is normally fairly consistent and throws up few surprises, a large number of African countries including Togo, Tunisia, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria and South Africa have made it to the finals in recent years. With only 6 slots available, it is sure to be an interesting qualifying campaign.

2010 World Cup Qualifying Section - Asia

43 teams enter the Asian Qualifying Section, competing for a maximum of 5 spots at the 2010 World Cup Finals. After the preliminary qualifying rounds between countries with no chance of reaching the finals are completed, five groups of four nations are drawn with the group winners and runners up advance to the final group stage.

This leaves two groups of five nations with the winners and runners up automatically qualifying for the Finals. The two third placed teams then compete against each other with the winner competing against the winner of the Oceania section to earn a spot at the Finals.

For the first time, Australia have been included in the Asian section by special request as they believe this enhances their opportunity of qualifying for the finals.

2010 World Cup Qualifying Section - Oceania

There is no direct qualification for the winners of the Oceania section. Instead, as above, the winners of this section will compete against an Asian team in a two-legged play-off to determine a spot at the finals.

2010 World Cup Qualifying Section - North, Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF)

35 nations compete for a maximum of four qualifying spots from the CONCACAF section. The qualifying campaign for 2010 is identical to 2006.

Two preliminary rounds will reduce the field to 24 and then 12 nations. This then leads to three groups of four teams, with the top two in each group advancing to a final 6-team group.

top 3 of this group will qualify to the World Cup finals, the 4th team will go to the playoff with CONMEBOL opponent.

2010 World Cup Qualifying Section - South America (CONMEBOL)

The South American Qualifying campaign is fairly straightforward, with ten teams competing in a league system, playing each nation home and away.

The top four teams automatically qualifying for the 2010 Finals in South Africa, with the fifth placed team competing in a two legged playoff with a CONCACAF opponent.

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