Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oceania), and UEFA (Europe) – was allocated a certain number of the 32 places at the tournament. A total of 205 teams entered the qualification competition, with South Africa, as the host, qualifying for the World Cup automatically. The first qualification matches were played on 25 August 2007 and qualification concluded on 18 November 2009. Overall, 2,338 goals were scored over 852 matches, scoring on average 2.74 per match.

Quick Facts Tournament details, Dates ...

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Tournament details
Dates	25 August 2007 – 18 November 2009
Teams	205 (from 6 confederations)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	852
Goals scored	2,338 (2.74 per match)
Attendance	19,336,189 (22,695 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Moumouni Dagano Osea Vakatalesau (12 goals each)
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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 by 15 March 2007: Bhutan, Brunei, Laos, and the Philippines.^[1]

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.

The following 32 teams qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup:

More information Team, Qualified as ...

Team	Qualified as	Qualification date	Appearance in finals	Consecutive Streak	Previous best performance	FIFA Ranking1
South Africa	Hosts	0015 May 2004	3rd	1 (Last: 2002)	Group stage (1998, 2002)	85
Japan	AFC fourth round Group A runners-up	016 June 2009	4th	4	Round of 16 (2002)	40
Australia	AFC fourth round Group A winners	026 June 2009	3rd	2	Round of 16 (2006)	24
South Korea	AFC fourth round Group B winners	036 June 2009	8th	7	Fourth place (2002)	48
Netherlands	UEFA Group 9 winners	046 June 2009	9th	2	Runners-up (1974, 1978)	3
North Korea	AFC fourth round Group B runners-up	0517 June 2009	2nd	1 (Last: 1966)	Quarter-finals (1966)	91
Brazil	CONMEBOL winners	065 September 2009	19th	19	Winners (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002)	1
Ghana	CAF third round Group D winners	076 September 2009	2nd	2	Round of 16 (2006)	38
England	UEFA Group 6 winners	089 September 2009	13th	4	Winners (1966)	7
Spain	UEFA Group 5 winners	099 September 2009	13th	9	Fourth place (1950)	2
Paraguay	CONMEBOL third place	109 September 2009	8th	4	Round of 16 (1986, 1998, 2002)	21
Ivory Coast	CAF third round Group E winners	1110 October 2009	2nd	2	Group stage (2006)	19
Germany	UEFA Group 4 winners	1210 October 2009	17th2	15	Winners (1954, 1974, 1990)	5
Denmark	UEFA Group 1 winners	1310 October 2009	4th	1 (Last: 2002)	Quarter-finals (1998)	27
Serbia	UEFA Group 7 winners	1410 October 2009	11th3	2	Fourth place (1930, 1962)3	20
Italy	UEFA Group 8 winners	1510 October 2009	17th	13	Winners (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006)	4
Chile	CONMEBOL runners-up	1610 October 2009	8th	1 (Last: 1998)	Third place (1962)	17
Mexico	CONCACAF fourth round runners-up	1710 October 2009	14th	5	Quarter-finals (1970, 1986)	18
United States	CONCACAF fourth round winners	1810 October 2009	9th	6	Third place (19306)	11
Switzerland	UEFA Group 2 winners	1914 October 2009	9th	2	Quarter-finals (1934, 1938, 1954)	13
Slovakia	UEFA Group 3 winners	2014 October 2009	9th	1	Runners-up (1934, 1962) 4	33
Argentina	CONMEBOL fourth place	2114 October 2009	15th	10	Winners (1978, 1986)	6
Honduras	CONCACAF fourth round third place	2214 October 2009	2nd	1 (Last: 1982)	Group stage (1982)	35
New Zealand	OFC v AFC play-off winners	2314 November 2009	2nd	1 (Last: 1982)	Group stage (1982)	83
Nigeria	CAF third round Group B winners	2514 November 2009	4th	1 (Last: 2002)	Round of 16 (1994, 1998)	32
Cameroon	CAF third round Group A winners	2514 November 2009	6th	1 (Last: 2002)	Quarter-finals (1990)	14
Algeria	CAF third round Group C winners	2618 November 2009	3rd	1 (Last: 1986)	Group stage (1982, 1986)	29
Greece	UEFA play-off winners	2718 November 2009	2nd	1 (Last: 1994)	Group stage (1994)	16
Slovenia	UEFA play-off winners	2818 November 2009	2nd	1 (Last: 2002)	Group stage (2002)	49
Portugal	UEFA play-off winners	2918 November 2009	5th	3	Third place (1966)	10
France	UEFA play-off winners	3018 November 2009	13th	4	Winners (1998)	9
Uruguay	CONMEBOL v CONCACAF play-off winners	3118 November 2009	11th	1 (Last: 2002)	Winners (1930, 1950)	25

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1.^ The rankings are shown as of 16 October 2009. These were the rankings used for the final draw.^[2]

2.^ Germany between 1951 and 1990 is often referred to as "West Germany", as a separate East German state and team existed then.

3.^ This is the 1st appearance of Serbia at the FIFA World Cup. However, FIFA considers Serbia as the successor team of the Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro who all themselves qualified on 10 occasions and who achieved this result.

4.^ This is the 1st appearance of Slovakia at the FIFA World Cup. However, FIFA considers them and the Czech Republic as the successor team of the Czechoslovakia who achieved this result and qualified for 8 previous occasions.

6.^ No official third place match took place in 1930 and no official third place was awarded at the time; both United States and Yugoslavia lost in the semi-finals. However, FIFA lists the teams as third and fourth respectively.^[3]

The qualification process commenced in August 2007 and was 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 four 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 confederation for the 2010 World Cup was:^[4]

• Europe (UEFA): 13 places
• Africa (CAF): 5 places (+ South Africa qualified automatically as host nation for a total of 6 places)
• Asia (AFC): 4.5 places
• South America (CONMEBOL) 4.5 places
• North, Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 3.5 places
• Oceania (Oceania Football Confederation): 0.5 places

UEFA and CAF had a guaranteed number of places, whereas the number of qualifiers from other confederations was 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 winners from the OFC.

As the host nation, South Africa qualified automatically. As in 2006, the current cup holders – Italy – did not qualify automatically.

There were two scheduled inter-confederation play-offs to determine the final two qualification spots to the finals. The matches were played in October and November 2009.

The draw for the order in which the matches were to be played was held on 2 June 2009 during the FIFA Congress in Nassau, The Bahamas.^[14]

AFC v OFC

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC–OFC play-off)

More information Team 1, Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score ...

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

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CONCACAF v CONMEBOL

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF–CONMEBOL play-off)

More information Team 1, Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score ...

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

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Controversy surrounded several of the final qualification matches in November 2009.

Wikinews has related news:

• Ireland requests replay of FIFA World Cup play-off with France

Wikinews has related news:

• FIFA to make changes after Thierry Henry handball

In the second leg of the play-off between France and the Republic of Ireland, French captain Thierry Henry, unseen by the referee, twice illegally handled the ball in the lead up to the decisive goal, which saw France make the final 32 teams ahead of Ireland. The incident caused widespread debate on FIFA Fair Play, and how matches should be refereed at the highest level. The Football Association of Ireland requested a replay on grounds of fairness, but this was denied by FIFA under the Laws of the Game.^[15] A widely reported later request by Ireland to be included as an unprecedented 33rd World Cup entrant was later withdrawn by the FAI, and dismissed by the FAI as peripheral to their other more substantial petitions for change in world football made to FIFA.^[16][17]

Costa Rica also complained over Uruguay's winning goal in the CONMEBOL–CONCACAF play-off.^[18]

There was crowd trouble around two matches between Egypt and Algeria, with the Algerian team bus stoned before the first in Cairo, and reports of Egyptian fans ambushed after the second in Khartoum, Sudan. Local media made lurid reports, and diplomatic relations between the countries nosedived.^{[citation needed]}

In response to the incidents during qualification, and to a match fixing controversy, on 2 December 2009 FIFA called for an extraordinary general meeting of their executive committee. After the meeting, FIFA announced that they would be setting up an inquiry into technology and extra officials in the game, but they did not announce the widely expected move of fast-tracking the introduction of goal-line referee's assistants, already being trialled in the Europa League, and instead restated that the competition in South Africa would be officiated as before, with just one referee, two assistants, and a fourth official.^[19] On the subject of fair play, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said:

I appeal to all the players and coaches to observe this fair play. In 2010 we want to prove that football is more than just kicking a ball but has social and cultural value...So we ask the players 'please observe fair play' so they will be an example to the rest of the world.

— FIFA President Sepp Blatter, ^[20]

• Since the inception of the World Cup preliminary competition, several teams have gone through qualification winning all of their matches. Though, during the qualification process for 2010, Spain set a new record by doing this on a 10-game schedule. Netherlands won 8 games out of 8 to qualify for the World Cup, something only West Germany had achieved before, during the World Cup preliminary competition for 1982. Brazil won their 6 games on their way to World Cup 1970 and managed then to win all of their 6 games in the final competition.

There were 2338 goals scored in 852 matches, for an average of 2.74 goals per match.

12 goals

10 goals

9 goals

8 goals

Below are goalscorer lists for all confederations and the inter-confederation play-offs: