2010 World Cup Qualification
Currently, only the host team, South Africa, automatically qualify for the final tournament. Until 2002, the title holder also qualified, but as from the 2006 World Cup, the title holders, Italy, must also qualify.
For the 2010 World Cup Finals, the 31 qualified teams will have played in global groupings decided by FIFA each global region are allocated limited qualification slots broken down as follows: 13 from Europe, 5 from Africa, 4 (or 5) from South America, 4 (or 5) from Asia, 3 (or 4) from North-Central America, 0 (or 1) from Oceania, this depends fully on the results of the play offs:
UEFA – Europe Eight groups of six teams and one group of five. Winners are qualified, the eight best second-placed determine the other four spots with a home and away play-off.
CAF-Africa A preliminary round will take place in order to reduce the teams to forty eight. This will be followed by twelve groups of four. The twelve winners and eight best runners-up will be divided into five groups also of four and the winners of these groups will qualify.
CONMEBOL-South America Ten teams in a single group will play a round robin, playing each other once on a home and away basis. The teams finishing from first to fourth position will qualify, the fifth placed team will play a two legged play-off with the fourth placed team from the Americas group.
AFC-Asia Two preliminary rounds will narrow the teams down from forty two to twenty, which are then split into five groups of four. Winners and runners-up of these groups will then be divided into two groups of five with the winner and runner-up of each group qualifying and with the two third placed teams playing a playoff against each other. The winner of this game will then play a final play off with the first placed Oceania team.
CONCACAF-The Americas There will two preliminary rounds to reduce the number of teams from thirty five to twelve. They will then be divided into three groups of four. The winners and runners-up will then play in a final group of six, where the top three teams will qualify. The fourth placed team will playoff with the fifth placed team from the South Americas.
OFC-Oceania The top three of the South Pacific Games, Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia will join New Zealand for the OFC Nations Cup. The winner of this will go to a play-off with the 5th placed from AFC. New Zealand have already won this match and now wait for the fifth asian opponents.
