2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

The qualification competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is an ongoing series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North America), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oceania), and UEFA (Europe) — was allocated a certain number of the 32 places at the tournament. A total of 204 teams entered the qualification process, with South Africa, as the host, qualifying automatically. The first qualification matches were played on 25 August 2007 and qualification is scheduled to conclude on 18 November 2009.

Entrants

At the close of entries on 15 March 2007, 204 football associations had entered the preliminary competition: 203 out of the 207 FIFA members at that time (including the host nation, South Africa, as the qualification procedure in Africa also acted as the qualification for the 2010 African Cup of Nations) and the Montenegro team, which later became FIFA's 208th member. The final number of teams entered breaks the previous record of 199 entrants set during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Four FIFA members (all from the AFC) failed to register for the tournament: Bhutan, Brunei, Laos, and the Philippines.

After the close of entries, Bhutan were allowed to enter and were included in the Asian preliminary draw, while Brunei and the Philippines had their late entries rejected.

However, five teams withdrew during qualifying without playing a match: Bhutan, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Guam, and São Tomé and Príncipe. In addition, Papua New Guinea failed to meet the registration deadline for the South Pacific Games (which was also the initial stage of the Oceania qualification) and took no part in qualification.

Summary of remaining qualification

Qualifying status as of 18 November 2009

	Team qualified for the World Cup.
	Team may still qualify for the World Cup.
	Team eliminated from World Cup qualifying.
	Country did not enter World Cup.
	Country is not part of FIFA.

Confederation	Teams started	Teams that have secured qualification	Teams that can still qualify	Teams that have been eliminated	Remaining Places in Finals	Total Places in finals	Qualifying end date
UEFA	53	13	0	40	0	13	18 November 2009
CAF	52+1	5+1	0	47	0	5+1	18 November 2009
CONCACAF	35	3	1	31	1	3 or 4	18 November 2009
CONMEBOL	10	4	1	5		4 or 5	18 November 2009
AFC	43	4	0	39	0	4	14 November 2009
OFC	10	1	0	9	0	1	14 November 2009
Total	203+1	30+1	2	171	1	31+1	18 November 2009

Legend for Confederation Standings
Confederations still playing qualifying matches
Confederations playing intercontinental playoffs
Confederations that have finished qualifying matches

Qualified teams

The following 31 teams have qualified to date, in chronological order:

Team	Qualified As	Date of Qualification	Finals Appearance	Consecutive Qualifications	Last Appearance	Previous Best Performance	Current FIFA Ranking
South Africa	Host	0015 May 2004	3rd	1	2002	Group Stage (1998,2002)	85
Japan	AFC Fourth Round Group A Runners-Up	016 June 2009	4th	4	2006	Round of 16 (2002)	40
Australia	AFC Fourth Round Group A Winners	026 June 2009	3rd	2	2006	Round of 16 (2006)	24
South Korea	AFC Fourth Round Group B Winners	036 June 2009	8th	7	2006	Fourth Place (2002)	48
Netherlands	UEFA First Round Group 9 Winners	046 June 2009	9th	2	2006	Runners-Up (1974,1978)	3
North Korea	AFC Fourth Round Group B Runners-Up	0517 June 2009	2nd	1	1966	Quarterfinals (1966)	91
Brazil	CONMEBOL Winners	065 September 2009	19th	19	2006	Winners (1958,1962,1970,1994,2002)	1
Ghana	CAF Third Round Group D Winners	076 September 2009	2nd	2	2006	Round of 16 (2006)	38
England	UEFA First Round Group 6 Winners	089 September 2009	13th	4	2006	Winners (1966)	7
Spain	UEFA First Round Group 5 Winners	099 September 2009	13th	9	2006	Fourth Place (1950)	2
Paraguay	CONMEBOL Third Place	109 September 2009	8th	4	2006	Round of 16 (1986,1998,2002)	21
Ivory Coast	CAF Third Round Group E Winners	1110 October 2009	2nd	2	2006	Group Stage (2006)	19
Germany	UEFA First Round Group 4 Winners	1210 October 2009	17th	15	2006	Winners (1954,1974,1990)	5
Denmark	UEFA First Round Group 1 Winners	1310 October 2009	4th	1	2002	Quarterfinals (1998)	27
Serbia	UEFA First Round Group 7 Winners	1410 October 2009	11th	2	2006	Fourth Place (1930,1962)	20
Italy	UEFA First Round Group 8 Winners	1510 October 2009	17th	13	2006	Winners (1934,1938,1982,2006)	4
Chile	CONMEBOL Runners-Up	1610 October 2009	8th	1	1998	Third Place (1962)	17
Mexico	CONCACAF Fourth Round Runners-Up	1710 October 2009	14th	5	2006	Quarterfinals (1970,1986)	18
United States	CONCACAF Fourth Round Winners	1810 October 2009	9th	6	2006	Third Place (1930)	11
Switzerland	UEFA First Round Group 2 Winners	1914 October 2009	9th	2	2006	Quarterfinals (1934,1938,1954)	13
Slovakia	UEFA First Round Group 3 Winners	2014 October 2009	9th	1	1990	Runners-Up (1934,1962)	33
Argentina	CONMEBOL Fourth Place	2114 October 2009	15th	10	2006	Winners (1978,1986)	6
Honduras	CONCACAF Fourth Round Third Place	2214 October 2009	2nd	1	1982	Group Stage (1982)	35
New Zealand	AFC/OFC Play-off Winners	2314 November 2009	2nd	1	1982	Group Stage (1982)	83
Nigeria	CAF Third Round Group B Winners	2414 November 2009	4th	1	2002	Round of 16 (1994,1998)	32
Cameroon	CAF Third Round Group A Winners	2514 November 2009	6th	1	2002	Quarterfinals (1990)	14
Algeria	CAF Third Round Group C Winners	2618 November 2009	3rd	1	1986	Group Stage (1982,1986)	29
Greece	UEFA Second Round Play-off Winners	2718 November 2009	2nd	1	1994	Group Stage (1994)	16
Slovenia	UEFA Second Round Play-off Winners	2818 November 2009	2nd	1	2002	Group Stage (2002)	49
Portugal	UEFA Second Round Play-off Winners	2918 November 2009	5th	3	2006	Third Place (1966)	10
France	UEFA Second Round Due to being cheating cunts	3018 November 2009	13th	4	2006	Winners (1998)	9

Notes

Qualification process

The qualification process commenced in August 2007 and will be completed in November 2009. An initial draw for preliminary qualification (qualifying groups in Oceania, and knockout ties in CAF and 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 was held in Durban, South Africa on 25 November 2007. 34 teams had been eliminated before the actual draw — 6 from OFC, 5 from CAF and 23 from AFC — and CONMEBOL qualification also had started (no draw was required for this confederation, as all 10 members play in the same group, with the order of fixtures the same as for the 2006 qualification rounds). The 4 remaining teams from OFC had also started playing the final stage as a single group, and no draw was needed. Therefore, the draw of 25 November involved 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 and withdrawals); AFC–20 entries in draw (original 43 minus 23 1st and 2nd round losers and withdrawals); and CONCACAF–35 entries in draw.

The distribution by conference for the 2010 World Cup is:

• Europe (UEFA): 13 places
• Africa (CAF): 5 places (+ South Africa qualified automatically as host nation for a total of 6 places)
• Asia (AFC): 4 or 5 places
• South America (CONMEBOL) 4 or 5 places
• North, Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 3 or 4 places
• Oceania (Oceania Football Confederation): 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, with CONCACAF's fourth-place team facing CONMEBOL's fifth-placed team, and AFC's fifth-placed team facing the winner of the OFC.

As the host nation, South Africa qualifies automatically. As in 2006, the current cup holders - Italy - did not qualify automatically. They will be seeded similarly to the way Brazil was in the 2006 tournament.

Tiebreakers

For FIFA World Cup qualifying stages the method used for separating teams level on points is the same for all Confederations, as decided by FIFA itself. If teams are even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams will be ranked by:

1. goal difference in all group matches
2. greater number of goals scored in all group matches
3. greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams
4. goal difference in matches between the tied teams
5. greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams
6. drawing of lots, or a play-off (if approved by FIFA)

This is a change from 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification, where results between tied teams was the first tiebreaker.

Confederation qualification processes

Africa (CAF)

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

(53 teams competing for 5 berths, host South Africa occupying a 6th berth)

The CAF qualification process began with a preliminary round played on 13 October and 17 November 2007 to narrow the field to 48 teams, and then 12 groups of 4 teams were drawn in Durban in November 2007.

The 12 groups winners and 8 best runners-up advanced to the next stage. The procedure was complicated due to two of the groups being reduced to just 3 teams due to the withdrawal of Eritrea (before the commencement of the group) and the exclusion of Ethiopia (which saw all their results annulled). As a result, the comparison of the 12 runners-up did not include results against teams finishing fourth in 4-team groups.

The remaining 20 teams were placed in 5 groups of 4 teams at a draw held in Zurich on 22 October 2008. The winners of these groups will qualify to the World Cup finals.

The qualifying competition for the 2010 World Cup is 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 (unlike hosts in previous qualifying tournaments since 1938) played in the qualifiers themselves to facilitate the use of the same set of qualifying matches for the 2010 African Cup of Nations.

Had South Africa advanced to the third round (second group stage), their matches would not have been counted in determining who advances to the World Cup finals. However, South Africa were eliminated from the qualifiers after the second round. This means that they cannot qualify for the African Cup of Nations, and all matches in Round 3 count towards World Cup qualification.

Legend for Qualifying Countries
Countries that qualified for the 2010 World Cup and 2010 African Cup of Nations
Countries that qualified for the 2010 African Cup of Nations

Final positions (Third Round)

Further information: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - CAF Third Round

Group A Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - CAF Third Round (Group 1)	Group B Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - CAF Third Round (Group 2)	Group C Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - CAF Third Round (Group 3)
Group D Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - CAF Third Round (Group 4)	Group E Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - CAF Third Round (Group 5)

In Group C, Algeria and Egypt finished with identical overall and head-to-head records. A tiebreaking play-off was contested on 18 November 2009 in Sudan to determine which team would qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, with Algeria prevailing 1–0.

Asia (AFC)

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

(43 teams competing for 4 or 5 berths; a playoff against OFC determines which confederation gets the extra berth)

Two preliminary rounds (one in October 2007 and one in the first half of November) narrowed the field from 43 to 20 prior to the group stage draw in Durban on 25 November 2007.

The group stage draw divided the 20 remaining sides into 5 groups of 4, which were played from February to June 2008, from which the winners and runners-up advanced to the final group stage. The winners and runners-up from 2 final groups of 5 nations (playing from September 2008 to June 2009) will qualify automatically for the World Cup finals, with the 2 third-placed sides playing off in September 2009 for the right to compete against the Oceania winner for a final qualification spot (with matches played in October and November 2009).

The knock-out preliminary rounds themselves were 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).

Legend for Qualifying Countries
Countries that directly qualified for the 2010 World Cup
Countries that advanced to the AFC play-off

Final positions (Fourth Round)

Further information: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - AFC Fourth Round

Group A Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - AFC Group A

Group B Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - AFC Group B

Play-off for 5th place (Fifth Round)

Further information: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - AFC Fifth Round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Bahrain	(a) 2–2	Saudi Arabia	0–0	2–2

2 – 2 on aggregate; Bahrain advanced on the away goals rule to the AFC-OFC playoff against New Zealand, the winner of the OFC zone (2008 OFC Nations Cup).

Europe (UEFA)

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

(53 teams competing for 13 berths)

The European qualification games started in August 2008 after Euro 2008. Eight groups of six teams and one group of five contested the European qualifying competition. As a result, the nine group-winners qualified directly, while the best eight of the nine second-placed teams will contest home and away play-off matches for the remaining four places. In determining the best eight second-placed teams, the results against teams finishing last in the six-team groups were not counted for consistency between the five- and six-team groups.

The First Round was completed on 14 October 2009. A draw for the Second Round was held in Zurich on 19 October, with the matches played on 14 and 18 November.

Legend for Qualifying Countries
Countries that directly qualified for the 2010 World Cup
Countries that advanced to the Second Round

Final positions (First Round)

Further information: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA First Round

Group 1 Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 1	Group 2 Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 2	Group 3 Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 3
Group 4 Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 4	Group 5 Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 5	Group 6 Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 6
Group 7 Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 7	Group 8 Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 8	Group 9 Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 9

Second Round

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Second Round

The Second Round was contested by the top eight runners up. With one group having one team fewer than the others, matches against the sixth-placed team in each of the other groups were not included in this ranking.

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

Tournament details
Dates	20 August 2008 – 18 November 2009
Teams	53 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	268
Goals scored	725 (2.71 per match)
Attendance	6,050,105 (22,575 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Theofanis Gekas (10 goals)

The European zone of qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup saw 53 teams competing for 13 places at the finals in South Africa. The qualification process started on 20 August 2008, nearly two months after the end of UEFA Euro 2008, and ended on 18 November 2009. The qualification process saw the first competitive matches of Montenegro.

Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, and Switzerland qualified in the first round by winning their groups. France, Greece, Portugal, and Slovenia qualified via the second round play-offs.

Format

Teams were drawn into eight groups of six teams and one group of five teams. The nine group winners qualified directly, while the best eight second-placed teams contested home and away play off matches for the remaining four places. In determining the best eight second placed teams, the results against teams finishing last in the six team groups were not counted for consistency between the five and six team groups.

Seeding

After initially proposing to use a similar system to recent World Cup and European Championship qualification (based on results across the previous two European qualification cycles), the UEFA Executive Committee decided on 27 September 2007 at its meeting in Istanbul that seeding for the qualifiers would be based on FIFA World Rankings, in accordance with the FIFA World Cup regulations (which note that where teams are ranked on "performance" criteria, the FIFA World Rankings must be used).

The November 2007 FIFA World Ranking the most recent at the time of the preliminary draw and used to determine the groups. Initially scheduled for 21 November, FIFA moved the release date of the ranking to 23 November to include the final match days of Euro 2008 qualification.

Pot A Team Rank Italy 3 Spain 4 Germany 5 Czech Republic 6 France 7 Portugal 8 Netherlands 9 Croatia 10 Greece 11	Pot B Team Rank England 12 Romania 13 Scotland 14 Turkey 16 Bulgaria 18 Russia 22 Poland 23 Sweden 24 Israel 26	Pot C Team Rank Norway 28 Ukraine 29 Serbia 30 Denmark 31 Northern Ireland 32 Republic of Ireland 35 Finland 36 Switzerland 44 Belgium 49
Pot D Team Rank Slovakia 50 Bosnia and Herzegovina 51 Hungary 52 Moldova 53 Wales 58 Macedonia 59 Belarus 60 Lithuania 61 Cyprus 65	Pot E Team Rank Georgia 77 Albania 82 Slovenia 83 Latvia 88 Iceland 89 Armenia 90 Austria 91 Kazakhstan 110 Liechtenstein 122	Pot F Team Rank Azerbaijan 125 Estonia 128 Malta 139 Luxembourg 152 Montenegro 172 Andorra 174 Faroe Islands 195 San Marino 197

Draw

The draw for the group stage took place in Durban, South Africa on 25 November 2007. During the draw, teams were drawn from the six pots A to F (see above) into the nine groups below, starting with pot F, which filled position 6 in the groups, then continued with pot E filling position 5, pot D in position 4 and so on.

Summary

Table – top row: group winners, second row: group runners-up, third row: others. The winner of each group qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup together with the winners of the play-off. The play-offs took place between the eight best runners-up among all nine groups while the worst group runner-up did not qualify.

  Group winners qualified directly for the 2010 FIFA World Cup

  Eight best runners-up advanced to the second round (play-offs)

  Worst runner-up and all other teams were eliminated after the first round

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	Group 6	Group 7	Group 8	Group 9
Denmark	Switzerland	Slovakia	Germany	Spain	England	Serbia	Italy	Netherlands
Portugal	Greece	Slovenia	Russia	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Ukraine	France	Republic of Ireland	Norway
Sweden Hungary Albania Malta	Latvia Israel Luxembourg Moldova	Czech Republic Northern Ireland Poland San Marino	Finland Wales Azerbaijan Liechtenstein	Turkey Belgium Estonia Armenia	Croatia Belarus Kazakhstan Andorra	Austria Lithuania Romania Faroe Islands	Bulgaria Cyprus Montenegro Georgia	Scotland Macedonia Iceland

First round

Group 1

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Denmark	10	6	3	1	16	5	+11	21	Qualification to 2010 FIFA World Cup		—	1–1	1–0	0–1	3–0	3–0
2	Portugal	10	5	4	1	17	5	+12	19	Advance to second round		2–3	—	0–0	3–0	0–0	4–0
3	Sweden	10	5	3	2	13	5	+8	18			0–1	0–0	—	2–1	4–1	4–0
4	Hungary	10	5	1	4	10	8	+2	16			0–0	0–1	1–2	—	2–0	3–0
5	Albania	10	1	4	5	6	13	−7	7			1–1	1–2	0–0	0–1	—	3–0
6	Malta	10	0	1	9	0	26	−26	1			0–3	0–4	0–1	0–1	0–0	—

Source:

Group 2

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Switzerland	10	6	3	1	18	8	+10	21	Qualification to 2010 FIFA World Cup		—	2–0	2–1	0–0	1–2	2–0
2	Greece	10	6	2	2	20	10	+10	20	Advance to second round		1–2	—	5–2	2–1	2–1	3–0
3	Latvia	10	5	2	3	18	15	+3	17			2–2	0–2	—	1–1	2–0	3–2
4	Israel	10	4	4	2	20	10	+10	16			2–2	1–1	0–1	—	7–0	3–1
5	Luxembourg	10	1	2	7	4	25	−21	5			0–3	0–3	0–4	1–3	—	0–0
6	Moldova	10	0	3	7	6	18	−12	3			0–2	1–1	1–2	1–2	0–0	—

Source:

Group 3

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 3

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Slovakia	10	7	1	2	22	10	+12	22	Qualification to 2010 FIFA World Cup		—	0–2	2–2	2–1	2–1	7–0
2	Slovenia	10	6	2	2	18	4	+14	20	Advance to second round		2–1	—	0–0	2–0	3–0	5–0
3	Czech Republic	10	4	4	2	17	6	+11	16			1–2	1–0	—	0–0	2–0	7–0
4	Northern Ireland	10	4	3	3	13	9	+4	15			0–2	1–0	0–0	—	3–2	4–0
5	Poland	10	3	2	5	19	14	+5	11			0–1	1–1	2–1	1–1	—	10–0
6	San Marino	10	0	0	10	1	47	−46	0			1–3	0–3	0–3	0–3	0–2	—

Source:

Group 4

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 4

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany	10	8	2	0	26	5	+21	26	Qualification to 2010 FIFA World Cup		—	2–1	1–1	1–0	4–0	4–0
2	Russia	10	7	1	2	19	6	+13	22	Advance to second round		0–1	—	3–0	2–1	2–0	3–0
3	Finland	10	5	3	2	14	14	0	18			3–3	0–3	—	2–1	1–0	2–1
4	Wales	10	4	0	6	9	12	−3	12			0–2	1–3	0–2	—	1–0	2–0
5	Azerbaijan	10	1	2	7	4	14	−10	5			0–2	1–1	1–2	0–1	—	0–0
6	Liechtenstein	10	0	2	8	2	23	−21	2			0–6	0–1	1–1	0–2	0–2	—

Source:

Group 5

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 5

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	10	10	0	0	28	5	+23	30	Qualification to 2010 FIFA World Cup		—	1–0	1–0	5–0	3–0	4–0
2	Bosnia and Herzegovina	10	6	1	3	25	13	+12	19	Advance to second round		2–5	—	1–1	2–1	7–0	4–1
3	Turkey	10	4	3	3	13	10	+3	15			1–2	2–1	—	1–1	4–2	2–0
4	Belgium	10	3	1	6	13	20	−7	10			1–2	2–4	2–0	—	3–2	2–0
5	Estonia	10	2	2	6	9	24	−15	8			0–3	0–2	0–0	2–0	—	1–0
6	Armenia	10	1	1	8	6	22	−16	4			1–2	0–2	0–2	2–1	2–2	—

Source:

Group 6

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 6

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	10	9	0	1	34	6	+28	27	Qualification to 2010 FIFA World Cup		—	2–1	5–1	3–0	5–1	6–0
2	Ukraine	10	6	3	1	21	6	+15	21	Advance to second round		1–0	—	0–0	1–0	2–1	5–0
3	Croatia	10	6	2	2	19	13	+6	20			1–4	2–2	—	1–0	3–0	4–0
4	Belarus	10	4	1	5	19	14	+5	13			1–3	0–0	1–3	—	4–0	5–1
5	Kazakhstan	10	2	0	8	11	29	−18	6			0–4	1–3	1–2	1–5	—	3–0
6	Andorra	10	0	0	10	3	39	−36	0			0–2	0–6	0–2	1–3	1–3	—

Source:

Group 7

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 7

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Serbia	10	7	1	2	22	8	+14	22	Qualification to 2010 FIFA World Cup		—	1–1	1–0	3–0	5–0	2–0
2	France	10	6	3	1	18	9	+9	21	Advance to second round		2–1	—	3–1	1–0	1–1	5–0
3	Austria	10	4	2	4	14	15	−1	14			1–3	3–1	—	2–1	2–1	3–1
4	Lithuania	10	4	0	6	10	11	−1	12			2–1	0–1	2–0	—	0–1	1–0
5	Romania	10	3	3	4	12	18	−6	12			2–3	2–2	1–1	0–3	—	3–1
6	Faroe Islands	10	1	1	8	5	20	−15	4			0–2	0–1	1–1	2–1	0–1	—

Source:

Group 8

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 8

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Italy	10	7	3	0	18	7	+11	24	Qualification to 2010 FIFA World Cup		—	1–1	2–0	3–2	2–1	2–0
2	Republic of Ireland	10	4	6	0	12	8	+4	18	Advance to second round		2–2	—	1–1	1–0	0–0	2–1
3	Bulgaria	10	3	5	2	17	13	+4	14			0–0	1–1	—	2–0	4–1	6–2
4	Cyprus	10	2	3	5	14	16	−2	9			1–2	1–2	4–1	—	2–2	2–1
5	Montenegro	10	1	6	3	9	14	−5	9			0–2	0–0	2–2	1–1	—	2–1
6	Georgia	10	0	3	7	7	19	−12	3			0–2	1–2	0–0	1–1	0–0	—

Source:

Group 9

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 9

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	8	8	0	0	17	2	+15	24	Qualification to 2010 FIFA World Cup		—	2–0	3–0	4–0	2–0
2	Norway	8	2	4	2	9	7	+2	10			0–1	—	4–0	2–1	2–2
3	Scotland	8	3	1	4	6	11	−5	10			0–1	0–0	—	2–0	2–1
4	Macedonia	8	2	1	5	5	11	−6	7			1–2	0–0	1–0	—	2–0
5	Iceland	8	1	2	5	7	13	−6	5			1–2	1–1	1–2	1–0	—

Source:

Ranking of second placed teams

Because one group had one team fewer than the others, matches against the sixth placed team in each group were not included in this ranking. As a result, eight matches played by each team counted for the purposes of the second placed table.

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	4	Russia	8	5	1	2	15	6	+9	16	Advance to second round (play-offs)
2	2	Greece	8	5	1	2	16	9	+7	16
3	6	Ukraine	8	4	3	1	10	6	+4	15
4	7	France	8	4	3	1	12	9	+3	15
5	3	Slovenia	8	4	2	2	10	4	+6	14
6	5	Bosnia and Herzegovina	8	4	1	3	19	12	+7	13
7	1	Portugal	8	3	4	1	9	5	+4	13
8	8	Republic of Ireland	8	2	6	0	8	6	+2	12
9	9	Norway	8	2	4	2	9	7	+2	10

Source:

Second round

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA second round

The UEFA second round (often referred to as the play off stage) was contested by the best eight runners up from the nine first round groups. The winners of each of four home and away ties joined the group winners in the World Cup finals in South Africa. Norway, with 10 points, was ranked 9th so failed to qualify for the second round.

Seeding and draw

The eight teams were seeded according to the FIFA World Rankings released on 16 October (shown in parentheses in the table below). The draw for the ties was held in Zürich on 19 October, with the top four teams seeded into one pot and the bottom four teams seeded into a second. A separate draw decided the host of the first leg.

Pot 1 (seeded) Team Pos France 9 Portugal 10 Russia 12 Greece 16

Pot 2 (unseeded) Team Pos Ukraine 22 Republic of Ireland 34 Bosnia and Herzegovina 42 Slovenia 49

Matches

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Republic of Ireland	1–2	France	0–1	1–1 (aet)
Portugal	2–0	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1–0	1–0
Greece	1–0	Ukraine	0–0	1–0
Russia	2–2 (a)	Slovenia	2–1	0–1

Qualified teams

The following 13 teams from UEFA qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
Denmark	Group 1 winners	10 October 2009	3 (1986, 1998, 2002)
Switzerland	Group 2 winners	14 October 2009	8 (1934, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1962, 1966, 1994, 2006)
Slovakia	Group 3 winners	14 October 2009	8 (19344, 19384, 19544, 19584, 19624, 19704, 19824, 19904)
Germany	Group 4 winners	10 October 2009	16 (1934, 1938, 19542, 19582, 19622, 19662, 19702, 19742, 19782, 19822, 19862, 19902, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006)
Spain	Group 5 winners	9 September 2009	12 (1934, 1950, 1962, 1966, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006)
England	Group 6 winners	9 September 2009	12 (1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1998, 2002, 2006)
Serbia	Group 7 winners	10 October 2009	10 (19303, 19503, 19543, 19583, 19623, 19743, 19823, 19903, 19983, 20063)
Italy	Group 8 winners	10 October 2009	16 (1934, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006)
Netherlands	Group 9 winners	6 June 2009	8 (1934, 1938, 1974, 1978, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2006)
Greece	Second round (play-off) winners	18 November 2009	1 (1994)
Slovenia	Second round (play-off) winners	18 November 2009	1 (2002)
Portugal	Second round (play-off) winners	18 November 2009	4 (1966, 1986, 2002, 2006)
France	Second round (play-off) winners	18 November 2009	12 (1930, 1934, 1938, 1954, 1958, 1966, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1998, 2002, 2006)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

² Competed as West Germany. A separate team for East Germany also participated in qualifications during this time, having only competed in 1974.

³ From 1930 to 1998, Serbia competed together with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia as part of Yugoslavia, while in 2006 as Serbia and Montenegro together with Montenegro.

⁴ From 1934 to 1990, Slovakia competed as Czechoslovakia.

Top goalscorers

There were 725 goals scored in 268 matches, for an average of 2.71 goals per match.

10 goals

• Theofanis Gekas

9 goals

• Edin Džeko
• Wayne Rooney

7 goals

• Miroslav Klose
• David Villa

6 goals

• Marc Janko
• Wesley Sonck
• Lukas Podolski
• Robbie Keane
• Elyaniv Barda
• Ebi Smolarek
• Stanislav Šesták
• Andriy Shevchenko

Below are full goalscorer lists for all groups and the play-off rounds:

• Group 1
• Group 2
• Group 3
• Group 4
• Group 5
• Group 6
• Group 7
• Group 8
• Group 9
• Play-offs

External links

• European Zone at FIFA.com
• UEFA Qualifier results with full game box scores at Scoreshelf.com

The draw for the second round play-offs was held in Zürich on 19 October, and the matches were played on 14 and 18 November 2009. The eight teams were seeded according to the FIFA World Rankings released on 16 October. The top four teams were seeded into one pot, with the bottom four teams seeded into a second. A separate draw was conducted between each matchup to decide who would host the first leg.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Republic of Ireland	1–2	France	0–1	1–1 (aet)
Portugal	2–0	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1–0	1–0
Greece	1–0	Ukraine	0–0	1–0
Russia	2–2 (a)	Slovenia	2–1	0–1

North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF)

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)

(35 teams competing for 3 or 4 berths; a playoff against CONMEBOL determines which confederation gets the extra berth)

The CONCACAF qualification process is identical to that for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification, except that as Puerto Rico competed this time (they were the only CONCACAF member not to enter 2006 qualification), there were 11 matches instead of 10 in the first preliminary round, and thus 13 teams instead of 14 received a bye to the second preliminary round. The two preliminary rounds, played in the first half of 2008, reduced the 35 entrants to 24 and then 12 teams. 3 semi-final groups of 4 were played between August and November 2008, with the top two in each group advancing to a final 6-team group held during 2009. The top 3 of this group qualified for the World Cup finals; the 4th-place team advancing to the playoff against the 5th-place CONMEBOL team.

Legend for Qualifying Countries
Countries that directly qualified for the 2010 World Cup
Country that advanced to the CONCACAF-CONMEBOL playoff

Final positions (Fourth Round)

Further information: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - CONCACAF Fourth Round

Oceania (OFC)

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)

(10 teams competing for 0 or 1 berth; a playoff against AFC determines which confederation gets the extra berth. Tuvalu also played in the qualifying tournament, but was 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, which was also the 2008 OFC Nations Cup, playing home and away. The winner would play a home and away playoff with the fifth-place Asian nation for a World Cup berth.

Final positions (Second Round)

Further information: 2008 OFC Nations Cup

Template:2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - OFC Nations Cup New Zealand advanced to the AFC-OFC playoff, against Bahrain, the 5th-placed team of AFC.

South America (CONMEBOL)

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (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 qualified for the World Cup finals; the 5th-place team advancing to a playoff against the 4th-place CONCACAF team.

Legend for Qualifying Countries
Countries that directly qualified for the 2010 World Cup
Country that advanced to the CONCACAF-CONMEBOL playoff

Inter-confederation play-offs

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (Inter-confederation play-offs)

There are two scheduled inter-confederation playoffs to determine the final two qualification spots to the finals. The ties themselves were not drawn, but were allocated by FIFA as:

• AFC 5th place v OFC winner
• CONCACAF 4th place v CONMEBOL 5th place

The draw for the order in which the matches will be played was held on 2 June 2009 during the FIFA Congress in Nassau, the Bahamas.

AFC 5th place v OFC winner

The winner of the OFC qualification tournament played the winner of the play-off between the two third-placed teams in the AFC qualification round four (considered to be the 5th placed team in the AFC). New Zealand qualified for the play-off by winning the OFC competition in September 2008. Bahrain qualified for the play-off by winning the AFC Fifth placed play-off in September 2009. New Zealand won the play-off and qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup on 14 November 2009.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Bahrain	0–1	New Zealand	0–0	0–1

CONCACAF 4th place v CONMEBOL 5th place

The fourth-place team in the CONCACAF qualifying fourth round (Costa Rica) will enter into a play-off against the fifth-place team in the CONMEBOL qualifying group (Uruguay).

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Costa Rica		Uruguay	0–1	18 November

External links

• 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa matches and results at FIFA.com
• Live Preliminary Draw