Football: 2010 World Cup and CAN qualifiers-The Pirates get Tunisia, Burkina Faso and Burundi in group nine |27 November 2007
Of the three teams, The Pirates of Seychelles know Les Aigles de Carthages of Tunisia quite
Reached by phone, The Pirates’ Congolese coach said:
“There is no easy draw as players and teams continue to improve, but I’m quite happy with the draw. It will be another opportunity for the team to acquire experience and sincerely hope that if the players put their acts together, we stand a chance of progressing to the next round.”
It is to note that The Pirates, who were paired against Djibouti in their first match of the preliminary African qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup which have been combined with the preliminaries for the African Nations Cup finals earlier the same year, benefited from the withdrawal from the competition of two lower-ranked countries, namely Central African Republic and Sao Tomé & Principe.
The Pirates, along with Swaziland, were thus not be involved in the preliminary round qualifiers and were pushed straight into the draw for the group stage.
Hosts South Africa are the only team already guaranteed their place in the final 32 teams, but even they have been included in the qualifying stages - and drawn in the same group as Nigeria - as the African groups will also double up as qualifying for the African Nations Cup.
The 12 group winners and eight best runners-up go through to final qualifying stage where they will be drawn in five groups of four teams. The five group winners qualify for the finals.
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The World Cup 2010 draw in full
Africa
Group 1: Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Tanzania and Mauritius
Group 2: Guinea, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Kenya
Group 3: Angola, Benin, Uganda and Niger
Group 4: Nigeria, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone
Group 5: Ghana, Libya, Gabon and Lesotho
Group 6: Senegal, Algeria, Liberia and Gambia
Group 7: Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Botswana and Madagascar
Group 8: Morocco, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Mauritania
Group 9: Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Burundi and Seychelles
Group 10: Mali, Congo, Sudan and Chad
Group 11: Togo, Zambia, Eritrea and Swaziland
Group 12: Egypt, DR Congo, Malawi and Djibouti
Asia draw
Four teams to the finals, rising to five depending on play-off with winners of Oceania group
Five group winners and five runners-up go through to final qualifying stage where they will be drawn in two groups of five. The two winners and two runners-up of these groups qualify for the finals. The two third-placed teams play off against each other for the right to play the winners of the Oceania qualifying tournament for a place in the finals.
Group 1: Australia, China, Iraq and Qatar
Group 2: Japan, Bahrain, Oman and Thailand
Group 3: South Korea, North Korea, Jordan and Turkmenistan
Group 4: Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Lebanon and Singapore
Group 5: Iran, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Syria
Concacaf draw
Three teams to the finals, rising to four depending on play-off with fifth-placed South American qualifier
The 12 group winners advance to the next stage of three groups of four teams. The top two in each of these groups advance to a final pool of six teams from which the first three qualify for the finals. The fourth-placed team go into a playoff against the fifth-placed South American nation for a place in the finals.
Group 1A: Dominica v Barbados and United States v the winners
Group 1B: Turks and Caicos Islands v Saint Lucia and Guatemala v the winners
Group 1C: Bermuda v Cayman Islands and Trinidad and Tobago v the winners
Group 1D: Aruba v Antigua and Barbuda and Winners v Cuba
Group 2A: Belize v Saint Kitts and Nevis and the winners v Mexico
Group 2B: Bahamas v British Virgin Islands and Jamaica v the winners
Group 2C: Dominican Republic v Puerto Rico and Honduras v the winners
Group 2D: Canada v Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
The winners of Group 2D go directly into next round
Group 3A: US Virgin Islands v Grenada and the winners v Costa Rica
Group 3B: Suriname v Montserrat and the winners v Guyana
Group 3C: El Salvador v Anguilla and Panama v the winners
Group 3D: Nicaragua v Netherlands Antilles and Haiti v the winners
Other regional groups:
South America
Four teams to the finals, rising to five depending on play-off with fourth-placed Concacaf qualifier
The South American group is a 10-team league with each country playing the other on a round-robin home and away basis. The qualifying matches have already started with Paraguay currently topping the table after four rounds of games, followed by Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. The other teams, in descending order: Venezuela; Uruguay; Chile; Ecuador; Peru and Bolivia.
Oceania
No teams to the finals, rising to one depending on play-off with fifth-placed Asian qualifiers
This group, like the South American, has already started. It is a four-nation league, again played on a home and away basis, comprising New Zealand, New Caledonia, Fiji and Vanuatu. The latter three qualified at the Pacific Games and New Zealand currently top the group after winning their first three games. The first and second placed teams will play off for the right to meet Asia's No 5 in a play-off.
Europe
13 teams to the finals
The nine group winners qualify for the finals automatically, and the best eight runners-up will play off for four more qualifying berths on a home-and-away basis - with the four winners advancing. Fifa has decided not to award the World Cup holders an automatic place in the finals, which is bad news for Italy.
Group 1: Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania and Malta
Group 2: Greece, Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia and Luxembourg
Group 3: Czech Republic, Poland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia and San Marino
Group 4: Germany, Russia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan and Leichtenstein
Group 5: Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Armenia and Estonia
Group 6: Croatia, England, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Andorra
Group 7: France, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria and Faroe Islands
Group 8: Italy, Bulgaria, Republic of Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia and Montenegro
Group 9: Netherlands, Scotland, Norway, Macedonia and Iceland
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