2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Tables For World Cup Soccer Footbal Scores 2010

FIFA World Cup : Group A Table

Tuesday, 22 June 2010 17:11 UK

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Uruguay	3	2	1	0	4	0	4	7
2	Mexico	3	1	1	1	3	2	1	4
3	South Africa	3	1	1	1	3	5	-2	4
4	France	3	0	1	2	1	4	-3	1

FIFA World Cup : Group B Table

Tuesday, 22 June 2010 21:51 UK

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Argentina	3	3	0	0	7	1	6	9
2	South Korea	3	1	1	1	5	6	-1	4
3	Greece	3	1	0	2	2	5	-3	3
4	Nigeria	3	0	1	2	3	5	-2	1

FIFA World Cup : Group C Table

Wednesday, 23 June 2010 21:25 UK

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	USA	3	1	2	0	4	3	1	5
2	England	3	1	2	0	2	1	1	5
3	Slovenia	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
4	Algeria	3	0	1	2	0	2	-2	1

FIFA World Cup : Group D Table

Wednesday, 23 June 2010 21:26 UK

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Germany	3	2	0	1	5	1	4	6
2	Ghana	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
3	Australia	3	1	1	1	3	6	-3	4
4	Serbia	3	1	0	2	2	3	-1	3

FIFA World Cup : Group E Table

Thursday, 24 June 2010 21:28 UK

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Netherlands	3	3	0	0	5	1	4	9
2	Japan	3	2	0	1	4	2	2	6
3	Denmark	3	1	0	2	3	6	-3	3
4	Cameroon	3	0	0	3	2	5	-3	0

FIFA World Cup : Group F Table

Thursday, 24 June 2010 16:59 UK

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Paraguay	3	1	2	0	3	1	2	5
2	Slovakia	3	1	1	1	4	5	-1	4
3	New Zealand	3	0	3	0	2	2	0	3
4	Italy	3	0	2	1	4	5	-1	2

FIFA World Cup : Group G Table

Friday, 25 June 2010 16:58 UK

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Brazil	3	2	1	0	5	2	3	7
2	Portugal	3	1	2	0	7	0	7	5
3	Ivory Coast	3	1	1	1	4	3	1	4
4	North Korea	3	0	0	3	1	12	-11	0

FIFA World Cup : Group H Table

Friday, 25 June 2010 21:25 UK

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Spain	3	2	0	1	4	2	2	6
2	Chile	3	2	0	1	3	2	1	6
3	Switzerland	3	1	1	1	1	1	0	4
4	Honduras	3	0	1	2	0	3	-3	1

Qualification Process For The World Cup Of Soccer

Currently, only the host team(s) automatically qualifies for the final tournament. Until 2002, the title holder also qualified, but as of the 2006 World Cup, the title holders must also qualify.
For the 2010 edition, the 31 qualified teams will include: 13 from Europe, 5 from Africa, 4 (or 5) from South America, 4 (or 5) from Asia, 3 (or 4) from North-Central America, 0 (or 1) from Oceania, depending on playoffs. South Africa are qualified as hosts. Each confederation, depending on the number of spots, decides the format:
UEFA (Europe): 8 groups of 6 teams and 1 group of 5. Winners are qualified, the eight best second-placed determine the other 4 spots with a home and away play-off.
CAF (Africa): A preliminary round to reduce teams to 48, followed by 12 groups of 4. 12 winners and 8 best runners-up will be divided into 5 groups of 4, the winners of these groups will qualify.
CONMEBOL (South America): 10 teams in a single group (round robin), teams from 1st to 4th position are qualified, the 5th placed will go to a two legged play-off with the 4th placed team from CONCACAF.
AFC (Asia): Two preliminary rounds will narrow the teams down from 42 to 20, which are then split into 5 groups of 4. Winners and runners-up will move on, and these 10 teams are then put into 2 groups of 5. The winner and runner-up of each group qualifies, with the two 3rd placed teams playing a playoff against each other. The winner of this game then goes into a playoff with the 1st placed OFC team.
CONCACAF (North & Central America / Caribbean): Two preliminary rounds to narrow the number of teams from 35 to 12. There are then 3 groups of 4. Winners and runners-up then go to the final group of six, where the top 3 teams qualify. The 4th placed team will enter into a playoff with the 5th placed team from CONMEBOL.
OFC (Oceania): The top 3 of the South Pacific Games (Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia) join New Zealand for the OFC Nations Cup. The winner of this will go to a play-off with the 5th placed from AFC.

Qualification Requirements

All FIFA federations are involved with World Cup qualification. Over 2 years, teams play qualification matches to determine who will be selected for the Group stages.
The winners and runners-up of each group will then qualify to the Round of 16. The placings in the groups are dependant on points. If two (or more) teams are tied on points, then their head-to-head record comes into play, failing which head-to-head goal difference, head-to-head goals scored, overall goal difference, and overall goals scored come into play (in order of priority). If none of these factors manage to separate the teams, then a play-off will be held
In the last 16, each group winner will face a runner-up. In these knockout games, a tie after normal time will result in two halves of extra-time of 15 minutes each, and then a penalty shootout. In the shootout, each team gets 5 kicks. If neither team misses, then they enter into a sudden-death shootout, where the first team to miss loses.

Competition Format

Once the qualifications have finished, there will be a draw, and the 32 teams will be put in 4 pots, according to FIFA ranking, with the exception of the host team (always seeded in Pot 1, along with the 7 best teams). Groups are then created with each group featuring one team randomly selected from each pot. Also, the groups (and thus the venues) for the host team are usually not drawn, but chosen. The host team also usually plays their group matches in the capital city

World Cup Venues in South Africa

Rustenburg: Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Originally this was a rugby stadium. The current capacity is 38,000, but will be increased to 42,000 in time for the World Cup. The Royal Bakofeng Stadium will also have electronic boards and a new light system. This stadium has been host to many South African Premier Soccer League games, despite Rustenburg not having a PSL team.
Polokwane: Peter Mokaba Stadium
The stadium is one of five new stadiums that is being built for the World Cup 2010. It will host 4 matches. The initial plan was to upgrade the old city stadium, but then the government and FIFA decided to build a new one. Peter Mokaba Stadium will be 5km away from the city’s downtown. The stadium was named after Peter Mokaba, a political activist during apartheid.
Nelspruit: Mbombela Stadium
The Mbombela Stadium is a new 46,000 seat stadium and is currently under construction as one of the ten venues for the FIFA World Cup 2010. It will be a multi-purpose stadium, and is expected to host soccer and rugby matches. Mbombela is siSwati and means 'many people together in a small space'. The stadium will be seven kilometres from the city centre and close to game parks, giving spectators the opportunity of seeing wildlife during the tournament.
Bloemfontein: Free State Stadium
Free State stadium hosted group and quarter-final matches at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations in 1996 and the Rugby World Cup in 1995. It is also the home of Premier Soccer League team, Bloemfontein Celtics. The stadium is being upgraded, and once completed it will have a seating capacity of 48,000. Free State stadium will be one of the venues for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.
Port Elizabeth: Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium will be high-tech and modern. It will host the first and second round matches of the 2010 World Cup. The city didn’t have a football-specific stadium, and all international matches player here were at the Eastern Province rugby team's ground. The locals here are exceptionally passionate about football, despite now having a PSL team (or perhaps because of that). This stadium will also host matches for the 2009 Confederations Cup, and will be the only new stadium included as a venue for that competition.
Johannesburg Stadium: Soccer City This venue is also known as the First National Bank Stadium (FNB Stadium or Soccer City). The stadium has the third largest capacity in Africa. The stadium is being renovated for World Cup 2010 with a new design inspired by traditional African pottery. The stadium will hold the opening match, four more first-round matches, one second-round match, one quarter-final and the final.
Ellis Park Stadium
Ellis Park stadium is the home of Orlando Pirates FC, a club in the Premier Soccer League. In 1995, they were the first South African team to win the CAF African Club Championship. It was constructed in 1928, and until the late 80s it was just for rugby. Then professional clubs began to play there. Teams like Brazil, Arsenal and Manchester United have all played friendlies here.
Cape Town: Green Point Stadium
This is a new stadium for the World Cup 2010. It is located at Green Point, at the juncture between Table Mountain and the Atlantic Ocean. The stadium will be used by South African giants Ajax Cape Town. Ajax Cape Town is a feeder club for European and Dutch giants, Ajax Amsterdam. In the World Cup, it will host five first round matches, one second round match, one quarterfinal and one semi-final.
Durban: Moses Mabhida Stadium
The new stadium will be part of Durban's King Park sporting precinct. The sporting precinct will also include a variety of different sporting disciplines. When completed it will play host to the Confederations Cup in 2009. It will be have a seating capacity of 70,000, and the design of the stadium will be characterized by two large archways above the stadium roof.
Pretoria: Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Through the years the stadium has undergone various name changes as sponsors came and went, but locals have always referred as Loftus Versfeld. Minimal upgrading will be required for the World Cup, where it will host first and second round matches. It is also a venue for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. This was the site of South Africa’s historic 1-0 win over Sweden, the first time they had achieved victory over an European team.

Ticket Availability

OleOle will have ticket and travel package available for the 2010 World Cup.

Official Sponsors

The World Cup 2010 will be the most profitable ever for FIFA. The contracts FIFA has signed for 2010 are higher than the contracts for 2006 in Germany by about 25%.
Agreements with five strategic partners for 2010 are valued at more than 750 million Euros. This dwarfs the 500 million Euros revenue brought in for the 2006 World Cup.
Companies will pay $125m USD to be one of the six official worldwide sponsors for the 2010 World Cup. In addition there will also be eight World Cup sponsors and four to six national sponsors. Entry level sponsorship is reported to be about $40 million USD.

The qualification competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oceania), and UEFA (Europe) — was allocated a certain number of the 32 places at the tournament. A total of 205 teams entered the qualification competition, with South Africa, as the host, qualifying for the World Cup automatically. The first qualification matches were played on 25 August 2007 and qualification concluded on 18 November 2009. Overall, 2337 goals were scored over 848 matches.

Contents:
1. Entrants
2. Qualified teams
3. Qualification process
4. Confederation qualification processes
5. Inter-confederation play-offs
6. Qualification Controversies
7. Notes
8. References
9. External links

1. Entrants

At the close of entries on 15 March 2007, 204 football associations had entered the preliminary competition: 203 out of the 207 FIFA members at that time (including the host nation, South Africa, as the qualification procedure in Africa also acted as the qualification for the 2010 African Cup of Nations) and the Montenegro team, which later became FIFA's 208th member. The final number of teams entered breaks the previous record of 199 entrants set during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Four FIFA members (all from the AFC) failed to register for the tournament by 15 March 2007: Bhutan, Brunei, Laos, and the Philippines. ^[1]

After the close of entries, Bhutan were allowed to enter and were included in the Asian preliminary draw, while Brunei and the Philippines had their late entries rejected.^{[citation needed]}

However, five teams withdrew during qualifying without playing a match: Bhutan, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Guam, and São Tomé and Príncipe. In addition, Papua New Guinea failed to meet the registration deadline for the South Pacific Games (which was also the initial stage of the Oceania qualification) and took no part in qualification.

2. Qualified teams

Final qualification status Country qualified for World Cup
Country failed to qualify
Country did not enter World Cup
Country not a FIFA member

The following 32 teams qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup:

Team	Qualified as	Qualification date	Appearance in finals	Consecutive Streak	Previous best performance	FIFA Ranking¹
South Africa	Host	15 May 2004	3rd	1 (Last: 2002)	Group Stage (1998, 2002)	85
Japan	AFC Fourth Round Group A Runners-Up	6 June 2009	4th	4	Round of 16 (2002)	40
Australia	AFC Fourth Round Group A Winners	6 June 2009	3rd	2	Round of 16 (2006)	24
South Korea	AFC Fourth Round Group B Winners	6 June 2009	8th	7	Fourth Place (2002)	48
Netherlands	UEFA Group 9 Winners	6 June 2009	9th	2	Runners-Up (1974, 1978)	3
North Korea	AFC Fourth Round Group B Runners-Up	17 June 2009	2nd	1 (Last: 1966)	Quarter-finals (1966)	91
Brazil	CONMEBOL Winners	5 September 2009	19th	19	Winners (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002)	1
Ghana	CAF Third Round Group D Winners	6 September 2009	2nd	2	Round of 16 (2006)	38
England	UEFA Group 6 Winners	9 September 2009	13th	4	Winners (1966)	7
Spain	UEFA Group 5 Winners	9 September 2009	13th	9	Fourth Place (1950)	2
Paraguay	CONMEBOL Third Place	9 September 2009	8th	4	Round of 16 (1986, 1998, 2002)	21
Côte d'Ivoire	CAF Third Round Group E Winners	10 October 2009	2nd	2	Group Stage (2006)	19
Germany	UEFA Group 4 Winners	10 October 2009	17th²	15	Winners (1954, 1974, 1990)	5
Denmark	UEFA Group 1 Winners	10 October 2009	4th	1 (Last: 2002)	Quarter-finals (1998)	27
Serbia	UEFA Group 7 Winners	10 October 2009	11th³	2	Fourth Place (1930⁵, 1962)	20
Italy	UEFA Group 8 Winners	10 October 2009	17th	13	Winners (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006)	4
Chile	CONMEBOL Runners-Up	10 October 2009	8th	1 (Last: 1998)	Third Place (1962)	17
Mexico	CONCACAF Fourth Round Runners-Up	10 October 2009	14th	5	Quarter-finals (1970, 1986)	18
United States	CONCACAF Fourth Round Winners	10 October 2009	9th	6	Third Place (1930⁵)	11
Switzerland	UEFA Group 2 Winners	14 October 2009	9th	2	Quarter-finals (1934, 1938, 1954)	13
Slovakia	UEFA Group 3 Winners	14 October 2009	9th⁴	1 (Last: 1990)	Runners-Up (1934, 1962)	33
Argentina	CONMEBOL Fourth Place	14 October 2009	15th	10	Winners (1978, 1986)	6
Honduras	CONCACAF Fourth Round Third Place	14 October 2009	2nd	1 (Last: 1982)	Group Stage (1982)	35
New Zealand	OFC v AFC Play-off Winners	14 November 2009	2nd	1 (Last: 1982)	Group Stage (1982)	83
Nigeria	CAF Third Round Group B Winners	14 November 2009	4th	1 (Last: 2002)	Round of 16 (1994, 1998)	32
Cameroon	CAF Third Round Group A Winners	14 November 2009	6th	1 (Last: 2002)	Quarter-finals (1990)	14
Algeria	CAF Third Round Group C Winners	18 November 2009	3rd	1 (Last: 1986)	Group Stage (1982, 1986)	29
Greece	UEFA Play-off Winners	18 November 2009	2nd	1 (Last: 1994)	Group Stage (1994)	16
Slovenia	UEFA Play-off Winners	18 November 2009	2nd	1 (Last: 2002)	Group Stage (2002)	49
Portugal	UEFA Play-off Winners	18 November 2009	5th	3	Third Place (1966)	10
France	UEFA Play-off Winners	18 November 2009	13th	4	Winners (1998)	9
Uruguay	CONMEBOL v CONCACAF Play-off Winners	18 November 2009	11th	1 (Last: 2002)	Winners (1930, 1950)	25

1.^ The rankings are shown as of 16 October 2009. These were the rankings used for the final draw. ^[2]

2.^ Germany between 1951 and 1990 is often referred to as "West Germany", as a separate East German state and team existed then.

3.^ Competed as Yugoslavia from 1930 to 1938, SFR Yugoslavia from 1950 to 1990, FR Yugoslavia from 1992 - 1998 and Serbia and Montenegro for 2006; 1st appearance as Serbia.

4.^ Competed as Czechoslovakia from 1934 to 1990; 1st appearance as Slovakia.

5.^ No official third place match took place in 1930 and no official third place was awarded at the time; both United States and Yugoslavia lost in the semi-finals. However, FIFA lists the teams as third and fourth respectively. ^[3]

3. Qualification process

The qualification process commenced in August 2007 and was completed in November 2009. An initial draw for preliminary qualification (qualifying groups in Oceania, and knockout ties in CAF and AFC) had been announced for Zurich on 28 May 2007, but none was held.

Initial groups for the Oceania qualification were eventually held in Auckland, New Zealand in early June, with preliminary draws for the Asian and African qualification announced in August.

The draw for the main 2010 World Cup qualifying groups was held in Durban, South Africa on 25 November 2007. 34 teams had been eliminated before the actual draw — 6 from OFC, 5 from CAF and 23 from AFC — and CONMEBOL qualification also had started (no draw was required for this confederation, as all 10 members play in the same group, with the order of fixtures the same as for the 2006 qualification rounds). The 4 remaining teams from OFC had also started playing the final stage as a single group, and no draw was needed. Therefore, the draw of 25 November involved 156 FIFA members from the original 205 entries, divided as follows: UEFA-53 entries in draw; CAF-48 entries in draw (original 53 minus 5 preliminary round losers and withdrawals); AFC-20 entries in draw (original 43 minus 23 1st and 2nd round losers and withdrawals); and CONCACAF-35 entries in draw.

The distribution by confederation for the 2010 World Cup was: ^[4]

Europe (UEFA): 13 places
Africa (CAF): 5 places (+ South Africa qualified automatically as host nation for a total of 6 places)
Asia (AFC): 4 or 5 places
South America (CONMEBOL) 4 or 5 places
North, Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 3 or 4 places
Oceania (Oceania Football Confederation): 0 or 1 place

UEFA and CAF have a guaranteed number of places, whereas the number of qualifiers from other confederations is dependent on play-offs between the highest placed teams in the qualification tournaments not guaranteed a place in the finals, with CONCACAF's fourth-place team facing CONMEBOL's fifth-placed team, and AFC's fifth-placed team facing the winner of the OFC.

As the host nation, South Africa qualifies automatically. As in 2006, the current cup holders - Italy - did not qualify automatically.

Confederation	Teams started	Teams eliminated	Teams qualified	Qualifying end date
UEFA	53	40	13	18 November 2009
CAF	52+1	47	5+1	18 November 2009
CONCACAF	35	32	3	18 November 2009
CONMEBOL	10	5	5	18 November 2009
AFC	43	39	4	14 November 2009
OFC	10	9	1	14 November 2009
Total	203+1	172	31+1	18 November 2009

3. 1. Tiebreakers

For FIFA World Cup qualifying stages the method used for separating teams level on points is the same for all Confederations, as decided by FIFA itself. ^[5] If teams are even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams will be ranked by:

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.

4. Confederation qualification processes

4. 1. Africa (CAF)

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

(53 teams competing for 5 berths, host South Africa occupying a 6th berth)

The CAF qualification process began with a preliminary round played on 13 October and 17 November 2007 to narrow the field to 48 teams, and then 12 groups of 4 teams were drawn in Durban in November 2007. ^[6]

The 12 groups winners and 8 best runners-up advanced to the next stage. The procedure was complicated due to two of the groups being reduced to just 3 teams due to the withdrawal of Eritrea (before the commencement of the group) and the exclusion of Ethiopia (which saw all their results annulled). As a result, the comparison of the 12 runners-up did not include results against teams finishing fourth in 4-team groups.

The remaining 20 teams were placed in 5 groups of 4 teams at a draw held in Zürich on 22 October 2008. The winners of these groups qualified for the World Cup finals.

The qualifying competition for the 2010 World Cup was combined with the qualification process for the 2010 African Cup of Nations. Since South Africa was hosting the World Cup, it automatically qualified for that tournament, although it (unlike hosts in previous qualifying tournaments since 1938) played in the qualifiers themselves to facilitate the use of the same set of qualifying matches for the 2010 African Cup of Nations.

Had South Africa advanced to the third round (second group stage), their matches would not have been counted in determining who advances to the World Cup finals. However, South Africa were eliminated from the qualifiers after the second round. This meant that they could not qualify for the African Cup of Nations, and all matches in Round 3 counted towards World Cup qualification.

Legend Countries that qualified for the 2010 World Cup and 2010 African Cup of Nations Countries that qualified for the 2010 African Cup of Nations

4. 1. 1. Final positions (Third Round)

For more details on this topic, see 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - CAF Third Round.

Group A

Team · ·	Pld	Pts
Cameroon	6	13
Gabon	6	9
Togo	6	8
Morocco	6	3

Group B

Team · ·	Pld	Pts
Nigeria	6	12
Tunisia	6	11
Mozambique	6	7
Kenya	6	3

Group C

Team · ·	Pld	Pts
Algeria	6	13
Egypt	6	13
Zambia	6	5
Rwanda	6	2

Group D

Team · ·	Pld	Pts
Ghana	6	13
Benin	6	10
Mali	6	9
Sudan	6	1

Group E

Team · ·	Pld	Pts
Côte d'Ivoire	6	16
Burkina Faso	6	12
Malawi	6	4
Guinea	6	3

In Group C, Algeria and Egypt finished with identical overall and head-to-head records. A tiebreaking play-off was contested on 18 November 2009 in Sudan to determine which team would qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, with Algeria prevailing 1-0.

4. 2. Asia (AFC)

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

(43 teams competing for 4 or 5 berths; a playoff against OFC determines which confederation gets the extra berth)

Two preliminary rounds (one in October 2007 and one in the first half of November) narrowed the field from 43 to 20 prior to the group stage draw in Durban on 25 November 2007. ^[6]

The group stage draw divided the 20 remaining sides into 5 groups of 4, which were played from February to June 2008, from which the winners and runners-up advanced to the final group stage. The winners and runners-up from 2 final groups of 5 nations (playing from September 2008 to June 2009) will qualify automatically for the World Cup finals, with the 2 third-placed sides playing off in September 2009 for the right to compete against the Oceania winner for a final qualification spot (with matches played in October and November 2009).

The knock-out preliminary rounds themselves were somewhat unusual, with all 38 AFC sides that did not qualify for the 2006 World Cup playing in the first knock-out round, but the 11 best-ranked winners from that round receiving byes in the second round (and only the 8 lowest-ranked winners competing to reduce the fields of teams to 20).

Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 2010 World Cup
Countries that advanced to the AFC play-off

4. 2. 1. Final positions (Fourth Round)

For more details on this topic, see 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - AFC Fourth Round.

Group A

Team · ·	Pld	Pts
Australia	8	20
Japan	8	15
Bahrain	8	10
Qatar	8	6
Uzbekistan	8	4

Group B

Team · ·	Pld	Pts
South Korea	8	16
North Korea	8	12
Saudi Arabia	8	12
Iran	8	11
United Arab Emirates	8	1

4. 2. 2. Play-off for 5th place (Fifth Round)

For more details on this topic, see 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - AFC Fifth Round.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Bahrain	(a) 2-2	Saudi Arabia	0-0	2-2

2 - 2 on aggregate; Bahrain advanced on the away goals rule to the AFC-OFC playoff against New Zealand, the winner of the OFC zone (2008 OFC Nations Cup).

4. 3. Europe (UEFA)

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

(53 teams competing for 13 berths)

The European qualification games started in August 2008 after Euro 2008. ^[6] Eight groups of six teams and one group of five contested the European qualifying competition. As a result, the nine group-winners qualified directly, while the best eight of the nine second-placed teams contested home and away play-off matches for the remaining four places. ^[7] In determining the best eight second-placed teams, the results against teams finishing last in the six-team groups were not counted for consistency between the five- and six-team groups.

The First Round was completed on 14 October 2009. A draw for the Second Round was held in Zurich on 19 October, with the matches played on 14 and 18 November.