The
qualification competition 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, 2337 goals were scored over 848 matches.
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 by 15 March 2007:
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...
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