2010 Football / Soccer World Cup - South Africa information dedicated to England and all football fans worldwide

52 teams will compete in Africa for 2010 World Cup qualification with 5 places up for grabs. South Africa qualify automatically as hosts but will take part in the qualifying process as the qualifying tournament doubles as a 2010 African Nations Cup qualifying tournament. South Africa will still qualify for the World Cup regardless of their results.

Africa World Cup qualifying consists of a preliminary round where the 10 lowest ranked nations in Africa play each other home and away in a knock out competition. The 5 winners in the 2 legged preliminary round join the other 42 nations plus South Africa in the first round proper.

Africa World Cup Qualification preliminary round fixtures

Sao Tome and Principe and The Central African Republic have withdrawn from the qualifying tournament. As a result the two highest seeds in the preliminary section, Swaziland and the Seychelles, will be given byes to the next round. Their opponents, Somalia and Djibouti will play each other to determine who goes through. The game will be played over just one leg on 17th November as Somalia is not deemed fit to host FIFA matches.

Rearranged preliminary fixture

Africa World Cup second round qualifiers

In the first round proper 48 teams were split in to 12 groups of 4. The draw for African World Cup qualifying was made in Durban on November 25th 2007.

Twenty nations qualify for the third round where they will be split into five groups of four. The winner of each group in the third round will qualify for the 2010 World Cup.

Following the second qualifying round in Africa, the following nations have qualified for the third round. Cameroon, Ghana, Egypt, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Morocco, Tunisia, Mali, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Zambia, Kenya, Benin, Rwanda, Togo, Mozambique, Sudan and Malawi.

Third round qualifying draw made for African zone - The twenty remaining teams in Africa have been split into 5 groups of four for the final round of qualifiers. The winners of each group will qualify for the World Cup finals.

Third and final qualifying round draw:

Group A: Togo, Cameroon, Morocco, Gabon, Group B: Mozambique, Nigeria, Kenya, Tunisia, Group C: Rwanda, Algeria, Egypt, Zambia, Group D: Ghana, Benin, Sudan, Mali, Group E: Ivory Coast, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Guinea.