FIFA World Cup 2010 Qualifying: Africa

Qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is well underway for the African nations. All world cups are important for any country, but this will be held in Africa for the first time. South Africa will host the event in 2010, and all the African nations want to be a part of the action.

53 African nations began fighting for 6 places in qualification. With host South Africa automatically qualified, this leaves just 5 up for grabs. 5 nations have already been eliminated in the preliminaries, and one nation, Eritrea, has pulled out, so 47 teams remain. They are at the halfway stage of 12 groups of 4 teams, with one group of 3, each playing home and away. The winners of each group and the 8 best runners up will qualify for the 3^rd round. These 20 teams will be placed in 5 groups of 4 and the top 5 teams will progress to the World Cup finals.

The current 48 countries and groups are as follows:

Group 1

Cameroon

Cape Verde Islands

Tanzania

Mauritius

Cameroon is one of the powerhouses of African football and look to be qualifying in first. The Cape Verde Islands are a surprise package and just need another win for them to be sure to qualify.

Group 2

Guinea

Kenya

Zimbabwe

Namibia

Guinea and Kenya are fighting out this group and I think will finish 1st and 2nd. In which order will come down to their last match together.

Group 3

Benin

Angola

Uganda

Niger

Benin are a surprise leader in this group, Angola have had recent success and will probably finish the group top with Benin second.

Group 4

Nigeria

South Africa

Sierra Leone

Equatorial Guinea

Nigeria has already got enough points to move through to the next round. South Africa is only in this competition to qualify for the African Nations Cup finials next year, so they do not get any points for qualification to the world cup, so Sierra Leone will be the beneficiary of this and will probably go through to the second round.

Group 5

Ghana

Libya

Gabon

Lesotho

Ghana is another dominant African team. They just need another win to qualify for the next round. Libya is also not far away from finishing second. Only a late run bay Gabon will prevent them finishing 1 and 2.

Group 6

Senegal

Algeria

Gambia

Liberia