WC 2010 Qualifying Draw - Sunday 25 November 2007 16:00 CET

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/organisation/media/newsid=637089.html#south+africa+world+football+spotlight+from+november

Preliminary draw at the International Convention Centre (ICC) on Sunday, 25 November 2007, scheduled to start at 17.00h local time (16.00h CET).

Asia Qualification Format
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/2010%5ffwc%5fqualification%5fformat%5fasia%5fen%5f17176.pdf

Africa Qualification Format
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/2010%5ffwc%5fqualification%5fformat%5fafrica%5f0925%5fen%5f21213.pdf

North, Central America and Caribbean Qualification Format
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/2010%5ffwc%5fqualification%5fformat%5fconcacaf%5fen%5f17185.pdf

South America Qualification Format
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/2010%5ffwc%5fqualification%5fformat%5fsouthamerica%5fen%5f17189.pdf

Europe Qualification Format
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/2010%5ffwc%5fqualification%5fformat%5feurope%5fen%5f17180.pdf

Oceania Qualification Format
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/2010fwc-qualficationformat-oceania-v8-e%5f16466.pdf

No. of Qualifiers
Asia - 4 (plus a play off with Oceania winners for a further place)
Africa - 5 + host
North America, etc. - 3 (plus a play off with South America 5th placed team for a further place)
South America - 4 (plus a play off with North America 4th placed team for a further place)
Europe - 13
Oceania - (plus a play off with Asia 5th placed for a further place)

So basically:

5 from Asia, 6 from Africa 3 from NA, 5 from SA, and 13 from Europe.

probably

Don't see why Africa should have more spots than SA, even with the host. 5 from Asia is also too much but I guess they have to do that for political correctness sake, plus Australia is in there now.

the prob with SA is the relatively small no. of countries especially compared to asia and africa

Plus beyond Argentina and Brazil there is basically no one. I don't have a problem with it.

thats the other thing as kimbo says how many of the other 2/3 ever get beyond the last 16 not too many i doubt, jeez even a piss poor england managed to beat one in the last WC

The-Frankinsense-Tavern wrote:thats the other thing as kimbo says how many of the other 2/3 ever get beyond the last 16 not too many i doubt, jeez even a piss poor england managed to beat one in the last WC

Yup. Africa have Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigieria, Senegal, and Cameroon - all stronger than the likes of Paraguay and Ecuador IMO. Then there's Togo, Angola, and Tunisia who all looked on a similar level to them in 2006.

Paraguay are much better than most African teams, maybe not as good as Ivory Coast or Nigeria - they've got a wealth of good strikers in Cabanas, Santa Cruz, Cardozo and Haedo Valdez. IMO Ghana are built on Essien, Muntari and Appiah the rest of the team is distinctly average.

Ecuador have been just plain $h!t since Tenorio and Hurtado have retired, expect them to get worse once De La Cruz retires.

Chile's team are one for the future. They had a good under-17 team and players like Droghuett, Mati Fernandez, Villanueva and Sanchez should be more experienced by 2010.

You are just going by names, because Ghana is clearly the best team in Africa.
Angolo Togo Tunisia all these three are absolute rubbish unclear why you mentioned them also Senegal have dropped a long way off. I think the south americans would definitly take them. But the other 3-4 would beat any of them except brasil and argentina. And although Ghana lost 3-0 they outplayed Brasil

L r d wrote:You are just going by names, because Ghana is clearly the best team in Africa.
Angolo Togo Tunisia all these three are absolute rubbish unclear why you mentioned them also Senegal have dropped a long way off. I think the south americans would definitly take them. But the other 3-4 would beat any of them except brasil and argentina. And although Ghana lost 3-0 they outplayed Brasil

Which south americans?

Angola, Togo, and Tunisia(who are actually decent) qualified for the world cup so deserve a mention. And they looked no worse than Paraguay.

Krimbo wrote:

L r d wrote:You are just going by names, because Ghana is clearly the best team in Africa.
Angolo Togo Tunisia all these three are absolute rubbish unclear why you mentioned them also Senegal have dropped a long way off. I think the south americans would definitly take them. But the other 3-4 would beat any of them except brasil and argentina. And although Ghana lost 3-0 they outplayed Brasil

Which south americans?

Angola, Togo, and Tunisia(who are actually decent) qualified for the world cup so deserve a mention. And they looked no worse than Paraguay.

How exactly are tunisia decent? Angola were poor at the world cup, and Togo didn't even qualify for the african nations. Tunisia couldn't even beat saudi arabia i hate those c**ts they cost me hundreds

Paraguay could take all of those. But ivory coast ghana and possibly the other two would take most south americans including uruguay. Ivory coast gave Argentina a good game, and Ghana outplayed brasil

L r d wrote:

Krimbo wrote:

L r d wrote:You are just going by names, because Ghana is clearly the best team in Africa.
Angolo Togo Tunisia all these three are absolute rubbish unclear why you mentioned them also Senegal have dropped a long way off. I think the south americans would definitly take them. But the other 3-4 would beat any of them except brasil and argentina. And although Ghana lost 3-0 they outplayed Brasil

Which south americans?

Angola, Togo, and Tunisia(who are actually decent) qualified for the world cup so deserve a mention. And they looked no worse than Paraguay.

How exactly are tunisia decent? Angola were poor at the world cup, and Togo didn't even qualify for the african nations. Tunisia couldn't even beat saudi arabia i hate those c**ts they cost me hundreds

Paraguay could take all of those. But ivory coast ghana and possibly the other two would take most south americans including uruguay. Ivory coast gave Argentina a good game, and Ghana outplayed brasil

Paraguay were just as poor. Tunisia won the ACN in 2004 and qualified for the world cup, both ahead of apparently stronger countries. And unlike Togo and Angola they looked they could play a little, Ukraine squeezed by them with a penalty and they scored against Spain. They weren't a whipping boy.

I'd love to see a clash between Africa and South America, two continents with such different philosophies, histories, and styles of football.

In South America right now, the strength in depth is being provided by the growth of Chile, Peru, and Venezuela.

kas, asia has five spots for political correctne$$ sake, if you know what I mean. The same goes to North America, to make sure the U$A will be there.

I think it's ok for SA to have 4.5 and Africa to have 5. but Asia should have 3.5, and N America should have 2.5. Europe should win an extra spot, 14.

kas wrote:Don't see why Africa should have more spots than SA, even with the host. 5 from Asia is also too much but I guess they have to do that for political correctness sake, plus Australia is in there now.

And you forget Peru who just drew with Brazil. And Colombia who just beat Argentina. Chile & Uruguay also have good quality. And you mention Ecuador, who are currently bottom in South America!!

Krimbo wrote:

The-Frankinsense-Tavern wrote:thats the other thing as kimbo says how many of the other 2/3 ever get beyond the last 16 not too many i doubt, jeez even a piss poor england managed to beat one in the last WC

Yup. Africa have Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigieria, Senegal, and Cameroon - all stronger than the likes of Paraguay and Ecuador IMO. Then there's Togo, Angola, and Tunisia who all looked on a similar level to them in 2006.

bluenine wrote:And you forget Peru who just drew with Brazil. And Colombia who just beat Argentina. Chile & Uruguay also have good quality. And you mention Ecuador, who are currently bottom in South America!!

Krimbo wrote:

The-Frankinsense-Tavern wrote:thats the other thing as kimbo says how many of the other 2/3 ever get beyond the last 16 not too many i doubt, jeez even a piss poor england managed to beat one in the last WC

Yup. Africa have Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigieria, Senegal, and Cameroon - all stronger than the likes of Paraguay and Ecuador IMO. Then there's Togo, Angola, and Tunisia who all looked on a similar level to them in 2006.

So SA teams have been beating eachother, great. Until they show strength of depth in the world cup, like Africa have, i won't be convinced.

Well IMO South-America gets enough places..with all respect its only Argentina and Brazil...the rest play minor roles. and 4/5 places out of 13 countries ain't bad.

If you compare it with the 50 countries we have and we only get 13 spots. And we have Asian countries like Turkey and Israhell competing in our Euro's!

Well done to Fifa in proving how incompetent they are.

Australia played $h!t games for 4 years before facing a play off against South American opposition. So they leave the Federation so World Cup qualification is easier and then Fifa go and align world cup play off sensibly.

WC qualification is definitely *not* easier for Australia by moving to Asia. Don't be fooled - the move was made by them to progress their football and finally have a challenge rather than their Oceania counterparts...and it will take a while before they are where they want to be. At the recent Asia Cup they struggled, and IMO will do again in the WC qualifiers against traditional Asian powers like Japan, S. Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

unofficial ranking of the UEFA teams used for the WC qualifying draw. Some countries are very close to each other, so it might be better to wait for the official FIFA ranking, but the top 2 pots should be right at least:

R Country Pts
1 Italy 1498
2 Spain 1349
3 Germany 1296
4 Czech Republic 1290
5 France 1243
6 Portugal 1241
7 Netherlands 1170
8 Croatia 1129
9 Greece 1114
--------------------------
10 England 1113
11 Romania 1088
12 Scotland 990
13 Turkey 914
14 Bulgaria 879
15 Sweden 864
16 Russia 861
17 Poland 855
18 Israel 849
--------------------------
19 Serbia 842
20 Norway 831
21 Ukraine 811
22 Denmark 786
23 Northern Ireland 784
24 Ireland 739
25 Finland 699
26 Switzerland 663
27 Belgium 595
--------------------------
28 Slovakia 592
29 Hungary 581
30 Bosnia-Herzegovina 578
31 Moldova 573
32 Macedonia 555
33 Wales 553
34 Belarus 552
35 Lithuania 542
36 Cyprus 502
--------------------------
37 Georgia 407
38 Albania 397
39 Slovenia 396
40 Latvia 392
41 Iceland 384
42 Armenia 370
43 Austria 354
44 Kazakhstan 294
45 Liechtenstein 261
--------------------------
46 Azerbaijan 248
47 Estonia 225
48 Malta 185
49 Luxembourg 127
50 Montenegro 65
51 Andorra 59
52 Faroe Islands 13
53 San Marino 6