2010 World Cup South Africa - Qualifiers Update

The 2010 World Cup runs for a month and will feature footballing nations from all over the globe competing for the mantle of World Champions. A total of 64 matches will be played at 9 venues throughout the country. The following teams have officially qualified for the most prestigious tournament in the football world, which kicks off on June 11th 2010:

European Qualifiers
Italy (2006 World Champions), Germany, Spain, Denmark, England, Serbia, Switzerland, Slovakia.

African Qualifiers
South Africa (Host Nation), Ivory Coast, Ghana.

South America Qualifiers
Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile

Central America/North America Qualifiers
USA, Mexico, Honduras

Asia/Oceania Qualifiers
Japan, Australia, North Korea, South Korea

There are 9 more places in the tournament up for grabs, and to this end there will be a number of play off matches in the European zone on the 14th and 18th November so as to ascertain the final four European qualifiers. The matches were decided by a draw at FIFA headquarters on the 19th October and are as follows:

France v Republic of Ireland
Russia v Slovenia
Portugal v Bosnia Herzegovina
Ukraine v Greece

Matches to be played on a home and away basis, with aggregate scores to determine the winners.

Three more teams from the African zone have still to qualify, and the final round of qualifying matches will be played in November 2009.

The final place for the Asia/Oceania region will be decided by the play off match between Bahrain and New Zealand.

The final qualifying place at South Africa 2010 will be decided by the match between the 5th place team in the South America zone and the 4th place team in the Central/North American zone. Uruguay will face Costa Rica in a play off match on a home and away basis.

December 4th 2009 sees the World Cup Qualifying draw taking place at the Cape Town Confederation Centre.

Hope you enjoyed our update on the qualifying nations for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Obviously if you are travelling to South Africa to support your country, you may as well see some of the sights of this wonderful country.

By: jonny D

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John writes for Novacarhire.com - an independent car hire reservation website where you can book low cost car hire at over 5,000 locations worldwide. Heading to South Africa on holidays? Visit Novacarhire.com's Car rentals Cape Town page and get an instant quote which will offer you the best deals from top car rental providers.