by Kevin Elder

Created on: August 23, 2008   Last Updated: December 24, 2010

World Cup Qualifying The Road to South Africa 2010

In 657 days, the World Cup will kick off in Africa for the first time. Qualifying is presently underway in all the regions though only two European teams have played thus far. There have already been some significant upsets: defending Asian Champion Iraq was bounced out of qualifying by a surprising Qatar, and China was also victims of the same group. In North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), Panama, who was ranked #60 in the world at the time, was sent packing by El Salvador.

That brings us to where we are today: Africa will have 6 teams in the competition for the first time, Europe will have 13 teams, Asia will have 4.5, Oceania 0.5, CONCACAF 3.5, and South America 4.5. How does a region get represented by half a team? Each region that is represented by half a team will meet another such region in a playoff for a place at the World Cup; thus Asia will play Oceania and CONCACAF will play South America.

Here is a look at the current group standings, who is likely to advance, and a few picks for potential upsets.

Africa

African qualifying is already most of the way through the first stage that will narrow the field from 47 teams down to 20. The winner of each of the 12 groups along with the 8 best second place teams will advance to the next stage. So far Nigeria is the only team to secure a berth in the next round. There is some complicated math involved in this group, as Eritrea dropped out of the competition right before it started, leaving one group with only 3 teams. This means for calculating the 8 best second place teams, the points gained against the worst team in the group will not be counted. A new complication is that Ethiopia has been suspended by FIFA (football's governing body) for failing to follow a plan to bring actions taken by the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) in line with FIFA regulations. At the moment it is not clear what effect this will have on qualifying.

Group 1 Cameroon, Cape Verde, Mauritius, and Tanzania

Cameroon are the big favourite to win this group, and they appear to be on their way to doing it. They had a surprise 0-0 draw at Tanzania, but I think that will be their only slip-up in this stage. Cape Verde have been the best of the rest, beating Mauritius and Tanzania. I see them making it to the next stage as a second place team, with Tanzania third and Mauritius last.

Group 2 Guinea, Kenya, Namibia, and Zimbabwe

Guinea are the favourites in this group.

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