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The European Zone of the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification will see 53 teams competing for 13 places. The qualification process will start in August 2008, after UEFA Euro 2008. The qualification process will also mark the first official competition for Montenegro.
[edit] Seeding
After initially proposing to use a similar system to recent World Cup and European Championship qualification (based on results across the previous two European qualification cycles), the UEFA Executive Committee decided on 27 September 2007 at its meeting in Istanbul that seeding for the qualifiers would be based on FIFA World Rankings, in accordance with the FIFA World Cup regulations (which note that where teams are ranked on "performance" criteria, the FIFA World Rankings must be used).[1]
The FIFA World Ranking used for seeding was the most recent at the time of the preliminary draw, namely the November 2007 edition. Initially scheduled for 21 November, the release date was moved to 23 November to include the final match days of Euro 2008 qualification.[2]
[edit] Format
Eight groups of six teams and one group of five will contest the European qualifying competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The nine group-winners will qualify directly, while the highest ranked eight of the nine second-placed teams will contest home and away play-off matches for the remaining four places. In determining the rank of second-placed teams, the results against teams finishing last in the six-team groups will not be counted for consistency between the five- and six-team groups.[3]
[edit] Tiebreakers
If teams are even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams will be ranked as follows:
- goal difference in all group matches
- greater number of goals scored in all group matches
- greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams
- goal difference in matches between the tied teams
- greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams
- drawing of lots, or a play-off (if approved by FIFA)
This is a change from 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification, where results between tied teams was the first tiebreaker.
[edit] Groups
The draw for the group stage took place in Durban, South Africa on November 25, 2007 (17:00 local time).[4] During the draw, teams were drawn from the 6 pots A-F (see above) into the 9 groups below, starting with pot F, which filled position 6 in the groups, then continued with pot E filling position 5, pot D in position 4 and so on, and finished with pot A in position 1 of each group.[5]
[edit] Group 1
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[edit] Group 2
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[edit] Group 3
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[edit] Group 4
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[edit] Group 5
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[edit] Group 6
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[edit] Group 7
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[edit] Group 8
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[edit] Group 9
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[edit] References
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