2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

The 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification competition 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, 2,338 goals were scored over 852 matches, scoring on average 2.74 per match.

2010 FIFA World Cup Qualification
Tournament details
Dates25 August 2007 – 18 November 2009
Teams205 (from 6 confederations)
Tournament statistics
Matches played852
Goals scored2,338 (2.74 per match)
Top scorer(s) Moumouni Dagano
Osea Vakatalesau
(12 goals each)

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.

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.

Qualified teams
  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 AfricaHost0015 May 2004 3rd1 (Last: 2002)Group Stage (1998, 2002)85
 JapanAFC Fourth Round Group A Runners-Up016 June 20094th4Round of 16 (2002)40
 AustraliaAFC Fourth Round Group A Winners026 June 20093rd2Round of 16 (2006)24
 South KoreaAFC Fourth Round Group B Winners036 June 20098th7Fourth Place (2002)48
 NetherlandsUEFA Group 9 Winners046 June 20099th2Runners-Up (1974, 1978)3
 North KoreaAFC Fourth Round Group B Runners-Up 0517 June 20092nd1 (Last: 1966)Quarter-finals (1966)91
 BrazilCONMEBOL Winners065 September 200919th19Winners (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002)1
 GhanaCAF Third Round Group D Winners 076 September 20092nd2Round of 16 (2006)38
 EnglandUEFA Group 6 Winners 089 September 200913th4Winners (1966)7
 SpainUEFA Group 5 Winners 099 September 200913th9Fourth Place (1950)2
 ParaguayCONMEBOL Third Place109 September 20098th4Round of 16 (1986, 1998, 2002)21
 Ivory CoastCAF Third Round Group E Winners1110 October 20092nd2Group Stage (2006)19
 GermanyUEFA Group 4 Winners 1210 October 200917th215Winners (1954, 1974, 1990)5
 DenmarkUEFA Group 1 Winners 1310 October 20094th1 (Last: 2002)Quarter-finals (1998)27
 SerbiaUEFA Group 7 Winners 1410 October 200911th32Fourth Place (1930, 1962)420
 ItalyUEFA Group 8 Winners 1510 October 200917th13Winners (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006)4
 ChileCONMEBOL Runners-Up 1610 October 20098th1 (Last: 1998)Third Place (1962)17
 MexicoCONCACAF Fourth Round Runners-Up 1710 October 200914th5Quarter-finals (1970, 1986)18
 United StatesCONCACAF Fourth Round Winners 1810 October 20099th6Third Place (19306)11
  SwitzerlandUEFA Group 2 Winners 1914 October 20099th2Quarter-finals (1934, 1938, 1954)13
 SlovakiaUEFA Group 3 Winners 2014 October 20091st51
33
 ArgentinaCONMEBOL Fourth Place 2114 October 200915th10Winners (1978, 1986)6
 HondurasCONCACAF Fourth Round Third Place 2214 October 20092nd1 (Last: 1982)Group Stage (1982)35
 New ZealandOFC v AFC Play-off Winners 2314 November 20092nd1 (Last: 1982)Group Stage (1982)83
 NigeriaCAF Third Round Group B Winners 2514 November 20094th1 (Last: 2002)Round of 16 (1994, 1998)32
 CameroonCAF Third Round Group A Winners 2514 November 20096th1 (Last: 2002)Quarter-finals (1990)14
 AlgeriaCAF Third Round Group C Winners 2618 November 20093rd1 (Last: 1986)Group Stage (1982, 1986)29
 GreeceUEFA Play-off Winners 2718 November 20092nd1 (Last: 1994)Group Stage (1994)16
 SloveniaUEFA Play-off Winners 2818 November 20092nd1 (Last: 2002)Group Stage (2002)49
 PortugalUEFA Play-off Winners 2918 November 20095th3Third Place (1966)10
 FranceUEFA Play-off Winners 3018 November 200913th4Winners (1998)9
 UruguayCONMEBOL v CONCACAF Play-off Winners 3118 November 200911th1 (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.^ This is the 1st appearance of Serbia at the FIFA World Cup. However, FIFA considers Serbia as the successor team of the Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro who all themselves qualified on 10 occasions.
4.^ This is the 1st appearance of Serbia at the FIFA World Cup. However, FIFA considers Serbia as the successor team of the Yugoslavia who achieved this result.
5.^ Competed as part of Czechoslovakia from 1934 to 1990.
6.^ 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]

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): 4.5 places
  • South America (CONMEBOL) 4.5 places
  • North, Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 3.5 places
  • Oceania (Oceania Football Confederation): 0.5 places

UEFA and CAF had a guaranteed number of places, whereas the number of qualifiers from other confederations was 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 qualified automatically. As in 2006, the current cup holders – Italy – did not qualify automatically.

Confederation Teams started Teams eliminated Teams qualified Qualifying end date
UEFA53401318 November 2009
CAF52+1475+118 November 2009
CONCACAF3532318 November 2009
CONMEBOL105518 November 2009
AFC4339414 November 2009
OFC109114 November 2009
Total203+117231+118 November 2009

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 were even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams would be ranked by:

  1. goal difference in all group matches
  2. greater number of goals scored in all group matches
  3. greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams
  4. goal difference in matches between the tied teams
  5. greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams
  6. 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.

Confederation 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

Final positions (Fourth Round)
Group A
Team Pld Pts
 Australia 8 20
 Japan 8 15
 Bahrain 8 10
 Qatar 8 6
 Uzbekistan 8 4
Source:
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
Source:

Play-off for 5th place (Fifth Round)
Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Bahrain  2–2 (a)  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).

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

Final positions (Third Round)
Group A
Team Pld Pts
 Cameroon 6 13
 Gabon 6 9
 Togo 6 8
 Morocco 6 3
Source:
Group B
Team Pld Pts
 Nigeria 6 12
 Tunisia 6 11
 Mozambique 6 7
 Kenya 6 3
Source:
Group C
Team Pld Pts
 Algeria 6 13
 Egypt 6 13
 Zambia 6 5
 Rwanda 6 2
Source:
Group D
Team Pld Pts
 Ghana 6 13
 Benin 6 10
 Mali 6 9
 Sudan 6 1
Source:
Group E
Team Pld Pts
 Ivory Coast 6 16
 Burkina Faso 6 12
 Malawi 6 4
 Guinea 6 3
Source:

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.

CONCACAF

(35 teams competing for 3 or 4 berths; a playoff against CONMEBOL determines which confederation gets the extra berth)

The CONCACAF qualification process[7] is identical to that for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification, except that as Puerto Rico competed this time (they were the only CONCACAF member not to enter 2006 qualification), there were 11 matches instead of 10 in the first preliminary round, and thus 13 teams instead of 14 received a bye to the second preliminary round. The two preliminary rounds, played in the first half of 2008, reduced the 35 entrants to 24 and then 12 teams. 3 semi-final groups of 4 were played between August and November 2008, with the top two in each group advancing to a final 6-team group held during 2009. The top 3 of this group qualified for the World Cup finals; the 4th-place team advancing to the playoff against the 5th-place CONMEBOL team.

Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 2010 World Cup
Country that advanced to the CONCACAF-CONMEBOL playoff

Final positions (Fourth Round)
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  United States 10 20
2  Mexico 10 19
3  Honduras 10 16
4  Costa Rica 10 16
5  El Salvador 10 8
6  Trinidad and Tobago 10 6
Source:

Honduras advanced on goal difference tiebreaker. Costa Rica moved to the CONCACAF/CONMEBOL intercontinental play-off.

CONMEBOL
Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL)

(10 teams competing for 4 or 5 berths; a playoff against CONCACAF determined which confederation filled the extra berth)

The CONMEBOL qualification process again featured a league system (home and away matches) for a single group of 10 associations, with matches played from October 2007 to October 2009. The fixture list was identical to that used in the qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. To limit the amount of travel by European-based players to South America, CONMEBOL's schedule used nine 'double match days' (with two sets of matches held within a few days of each other). The top 4 teams qualified for the World Cup finals; the 5th-place team advancing to a playoff against the 4th-place CONCACAF team.

Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 2010 World Cup
Country that advanced to the CONCACAF-CONMEBOL playoff

Final positions
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Brazil 18 34
2  Chile 18 33
3  Paraguay 18 33
4  Argentina 18 28
5  Uruguay 18 24
6  Ecuador 18 23
7  Colombia 18 23
8  Venezuela 18 22
9  Bolivia 18 15
10  Peru 18 13
Source: FIFA

OFC

(10 teams competing for 0 or 1 berth; a playoff against AFC determines which confederation gets the extra berth. Tuvalu also played in the qualifying tournament, but was not an entrant to the World Cup qualification)

The qualification process began with a tournament at the 2007 South Pacific Games in August 2007. The top three (New Caledonia, Fiji, and Vanuatu, respectively) joined New Zealand in a 4-team group, which was also the 2008 OFC Nations Cup, playing home and away. The winner would play a home and away playoff with the fifth-place Asian nation for a World Cup berth.[6]

Final positions (Second Round)
Team Pld Pts
 New Zealand 6 15
 New Caledonia 6 8
 Fiji 6 7
 Vanuatu 6 4
Source:

New Zealand advanced to the AFC-OFC playoff, against Bahrain, the 5th-placed team of AFC.

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.[8] 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.

Legend
Countries that directly qualified for the 2010 World Cup
Countries that advanced to the Second Round

Final positions (First Round)
Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA First Round
Group 1
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Denmark 10 21
2  Portugal 10 19
3  Sweden 10 18
4  Hungary 10 16
5  Albania 10 7
6  Malta 10 1
Source:
Group 2
Pos Team Pld Pts
1   Switzerland 10 21
2  Greece 10 20
3  Latvia 10 17
4  Israel 10 16
5  Luxembourg 10 5
6  Moldova 10 3
Source:
Group 3
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Slovakia 10 22
2  Slovenia 10 20
3  Czech Republic 10 16
4  Northern Ireland 10 15
5  Poland 10 11
6  San Marino 10 0
Source:
Group 4
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Germany 10 26
2  Russia 10 22
3  Finland 10 18
4  Wales 10 12
5  Azerbaijan 10 5
6  Liechtenstein 10 2
Source:
Group 5
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Spain 10 30
2  Bosnia and Herzegovina 10 19
3  Turkey 10 15
4  Belgium 10 10
5  Estonia 10 8
6  Armenia 10 4
Source:
Group 6
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  England 10 27
2  Ukraine 10 21
3  Croatia 10 20
4  Belarus 10 13
5  Kazakhstan 10 6
6  Andorra 10 0
Source:
Group 7
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Serbia 10 22
2  France 10 21
3  Austria 10 14
4  Lithuania 10 12
5  Romania 10 12
6  Faroe Islands 10 4
Source:
Group 8
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Italy 10 24
2  Republic of Ireland 10 18
3  Bulgaria 10 14
4  Cyprus 10 9
5  Montenegro 10 9
6  Georgia 10 3
Source:
Group 9
Pos Team Pld Pts
1  Netherlands 8 24
2  Norway 8 10
3  Scotland 8 10
4  Macedonia 8 7
5  Iceland 8 5
Source: MacedonianFootball

Second Round

The Second Round was contested by the top eight runners up. With one group having one team fewer than the others, matches against the sixth-placed team in each of the other groups were not included in this ranking.

Pos Grp Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 4  Russia 8 5 1 2 15 6 +9 16 Advance to second round (play-offs)
2 2  Greece 8 5 1 2 16 9 +7 16
3 6  Ukraine 8 4 3 1 10 6 +4 15
4 7  France 8 4 3 1 12 9 +3 15
5 3  Slovenia 8 4 2 2 10 4 +6 14
6 5  Bosnia and Herzegovina 8 4 1 3 19 12 +7 13
7 1  Portugal 8 3 4 1 9 5 +4 13
8 8  Republic of Ireland 8 2 6 0 8 6 +2 12
9 9  Norway 8 2 4 2 9 7 +2 10
Source:
Rules for classification: 1. Total points, 2. Goal difference, 3. Goals scored, 4. Goals scored away from home, 5. Disciplinary record (yellow card, –1 point; two yellow cards in the same match, –3 points; red card, –3 points; yellow card followed by a direct red card in the same match, –4 points), 6. Drawing of lots[9]

The draw for the second round play-offs was held in Zürich on 19 October, and the matches were played on 14 and 18 November 2009. The eight teams were seeded according to the FIFA World Rankings released on 16 October. The top four teams were seeded into one pot, with the bottom four teams seeded into a second. A separate draw was conducted between each matchup to decide who would host the first leg.

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Republic of Ireland  1–2  France 0–1 1–1 (aet)
Portugal  2–0  Bosnia and Herzegovina 1–0 1–0
Greece  1–0  Ukraine 0–0 1–0
Russia  2–2 (a)  Slovenia 2–1 0–1

France, Portugal, Greece and Slovenia qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Inter-confederation play-offs

There were two scheduled inter-confederation playoffs to determine the final two qualification spots to the finals. The matches were played in October and November 2009.

The draw for the order in which the matches were to be played was held on 2 June 2009 during the FIFA Congress in Nassau, the Bahamas.[10]

AFC v OFC
Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Bahrain  0–1  New Zealand 0–0 0–1

CONCACAF v CONMEBOL
Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Costa Rica  1–2  Uruguay 0–1 1–1

Qualification controversies

Controversy surrounded several of the final qualification matches in November 2009.

Wikinews has related news:
Wikinews has related news:

In the second leg of the play-off between France and the Republic of Ireland, French captain Thierry Henry, unseen by the referee, twice illegally handled the ball in the lead up to the decisive goal, which saw France make the final 32 teams ahead of Ireland. The incident caused widespread debate on FIFA Fair Play, and how matches should be refereed at the highest level. The Football Association of Ireland requested a replay on grounds of fairness, but this was denied by FIFA under the Laws of the Game.[11] A widely reported later request by Ireland to be included as an unprecedented 33rd World Cup entrant was later withdrawn by the FAI, and dismissed by the FAI as peripheral to their other more substantial petitions for change in world football made to FIFA.[12][13]

Costa Rica also complained over Uruguay's winning goal in the CONMEBOL–CONCACAF playoff.[14]

There was crowd trouble around two matches between Egypt and Algeria, with the Algerian team bus stoned before the first in Cairo, and reports of Egyptian fans ambushed after the second in Khartoum, Sudan. Local media made lurid reports, and diplomatic relations between the countries nosedived.

In response to the incidents during qualification, and to a match fixing controversy, on 2 December 2009 FIFA called for an extraordinary general meeting of their executive committee. After the meeting, FIFA announced that they would be setting up an inquiry into technology and extra officials in the game, but they did not announce the widely expected move of fast-tracking the introduction of goal-line referee's assistants, already being trialled in the Europa League, and instead restated that the competition in South Africa would be officiated as before, with just one referee, two assistants, and a fourth official.[15] On the subject of fair play, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said:

I appeal to all the players and coaches to observe this fair play. In 2010 we want to prove that football is more than just kicking a ball but has social and cultural value...So we ask the players 'please observe fair play' so they will be an example to the rest of the world.

— FIFA President Sepp Blatter, [16]

Notes
  • Since the inception of the World Cup preliminary competition, several teams have gone through qualification winning all of their matches. Though, during the qualification process for 2010, Spain set a new record by doing this on a 10-game schedule. Netherlands won 8 games out of 8 to qualify for the World Cup, something only West Germany had achieved before, during the World Cup preliminary competition for 1982. Brazil won their 6 games on their way to World Cup 1970 and managed then to win all of their 6 games in the final competition.

Top goalscorers
12 goals
  • Moumouni Dagano
  • Osea Vakatalesau
10 goals
9 goals
8 goals

References
  1. "Record number of 204 teams enter preliminary competition" (Press release). FIFA. 2007-03-30. Archived from the original on 3 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
  2. "The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking". FIFA.com. Zurich, Switzerland: FIFA. 2009-06-03. Archived from the original on June 3, 2007. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
  3. "1930 FIFA World Cup Uruguay". fifa.com. Archived from the original on June 3, 2007.
  4. "Clear declaration to defend the autonomy of sport" (Press release). FIFA. 2006-12-06. Archived from the original on September 11, 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  5. "Regulations 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa" (PDF). FIFA.com. Zurich, Switzerland: FIFA. July 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2009-06-12.
  6. FIFA.com Archived 2007-06-10 at the Wayback Machine
  7. "CONCACAF Exco meets in Netherlands Antilles" (Press release). CONCACAF. 27 March 2007. Archived from the original on 8 April 2007. Retrieved 29 March 2007.
  8. "EXCO unveils World Cup programme". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 25 June 2007. Archived from the original on 14 September 2009. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  9. "Determining Europe's runners-up". FIFA.com. Zurich: Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 16 October 2008. Archived from the original on October 17, 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  10. Intercontinental play-off dates confirmed Archived 2009-06-14 at the Wayback Machine
  11. "FIFA statement on FAI request". FIFA. 2009-11-20. Archived from the original on 2009-11-23. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
  12. "Blatter apologises over comments". Press Association. 2009-12-02. Archived from the original on 2009-12-06. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
  13. "FAI tries to set record straight". Irish Times. 2009-12-02. Archived from the original on 2011-04-28. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
  14. Harris, Nick (1 December 2009). "Blatter: we need goal line officials at World Cup President urges change as Fifa considers Ireland's appeal to be '33rd nation' at finals". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 5 December 2009. Retrieved 5 January 2010.
  15. "FIFA reject extra referees proposal". Press Association. 2009-12-02. Archived from the original on 2009-12-03. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
  16. "Fifa to investigate Thierry Henry handball". BBC Sport. 2009-12-02. Archived from the original on 2009-12-03. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
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