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The road to the 19th World Cup (which as we all know is being held in South Africa in June 2010) is becoming that bit shorter both in terms of knowing who the 32 participating countries will be, and the time that we have to wait for the thrill of the matches to kick off!
Check out our guide to the 2010 World Cup Qualifiers update...
The 2010 World Cup runs for a month and will feature footballing nations from all over the globe competing for the mantle of World Champions. A total of 64 matches will be played at 9 venues throughout the country. The following teams have officially qualified for the most prestigious tournament in the football world, which kicks off on June 11th 2010:
European Qualifiers
Italy (2006 World Champions), Germany, Spain, Denmark, England, Serbia, Switzerland, Slovakia.
African Qualifiers
South Africa (Host Nation), Ivory Coast, Ghana.
South America Qualifiers
Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile
Central America/North America Qualifiers
USA, Mexico, Honduras
Asia/Oceania Qualifiers
Japan, Australia, North Korea, South Korea
There are 9 more places in the tournament up for grabs, and to this end there will be a number of play off matches in the European zone on the 14th and 18th November so as to ascertain the final four European qualifiers. The matches were decided by a draw at FIFA headquarters on the 19th October and are as follows:
France v Republic of Ireland
Russia v Slovenia
Portugal v Bosnia Herzegovina
Ukraine v Greece
Matches to be played on a home and away basis, with aggregate scores to determine the winners.
Three more teams from the African zone have still to qualify, and the final round of qualifying matches will be played in November 2009.
The final place for the Asia/Oceania region will be decided by the play off match between Bahrain and New Zealand.
The final qualifying place at South Africa 2010 will be decided by the match between the 5th place team in the South America zone and the 4th place team in the Central/North American zone. Uruguay will face Costa Rica in a play off match on a home and away basis.
December 4th 2009 sees the World Cup Qualifying draw taking place at the Cape Town Confederation Centre.
John writes for Novacarhire.com - an independent car hire reservation website where you can book low cost car hire at over 5,000 locations worldwide.
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