2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF).html



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The Confederation of African Football (CAF) section of the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification sees teams competing for five berths in the final tournament in South Africa. The qualification stage doubles as the qualification stage for the 2010 African Cup of Nations, with fifteen teams qualifying for the finals to be held in Angola.

In total there are 53 nations participating. However, due to the presence of the two tournaments' respective hosts, each competition has 52 teams. South Africa qualifies automatically as host for the World Cup,¹ and Angola qualifies as host for the African Cup of Nations. Both are nevertheless competing in the qualifying phase, to attempt to qualify for the other tournament.

This is the first time since 1934 that the hosts will compete in World Cup qualifiers. Angola's situation mirrors that of Egypt in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers in Africa, which doubled as the qualifiers to the 2006 African Cup of Nations hosted by Egypt.²

First Round

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - CAF First Round

Five knockout ties were originally required, involving the ten lowest ranked African countries (based on FIFA rankings as of July 2007). The actual draw was apparently conducted one day before the format was announced by CAF. The pairings were:³

•  Madagascar v  Comoros
•  Somalia v  Swaziland
•  São Tomé and Príncipe v  Central African Republic
•  Sierra Leone v  Guinea-Bissau
•  Seychelles v  Djibouti

São Tomé and Príncipe and the Central African Republic both withdrew in early September. As a result, Swaziland and Seychelles (the highest ranked of the ten nations) were no longer required to play in this round, and the teams they were originally matched against, Somalia and Djibouti, were redrawn to play each other instead.⁴ The tie between Djibouti and Somalia was played as a one leg tie in Djibouti, as Somalia was not deemed suitable for FIFA matches; the other two ties were played as two leg ties.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	Home leg	Away leg
Madagascar	10–2	Comoros	6–2	4–0
Djibouti	1–0	Somalia	1–0	N/A
Sierra Leone	1–0	Guinea-Bissau	1–0	0–0

Second Round

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - CAF Second Round

The 48 qualifiers (45 direct entrants plus 3 winners of the first round) were split into 12 groups of 4 in the draw held in Durban, South Africa on 25 November 2007. Teams in each group played a home-and-away round-robin in 2008, with the 12 groups winners and 8 best runners-up advancing to the third round. As not all groups were of equal size after the exclusion of Ethiopia and the withdrawal of Eritrea, when ranking the runners-up, their results against their group's 4th placed team would not be counted.⁵

Seeding

One team from each of the following pots were drawn into each group.⁶

Group 1

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Cameroon 6 5 1 0 14 2 +12 16  Cape Verde 6 3 0 3 7 8 −1 9  Tanzania 6 2 2 2 9 6 +3 8  Mauritius 6 0 1 5 3 17 −14 1

Cameroon  — 2 – 0 5 – 0 2 – 1 Cape Verde  1 – 2 — 3 – 1 1 – 0 Mauritius  0 – 3 0 – 1 — 1 – 4 Tanzania  0 – 0 3 – 1 1 – 1 —

Group 2

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Guinea 6 3 2 1 9 5 +4 11  Kenya 6 3 1 2 8 5 +3 10  Zimbabwe 6 1 3 2 4 6 −2 6  Namibia 6 2 0 4 7 12 −5 6

Guinea  — 3 – 2 4 – 0 0 – 0 Kenya  2 – 0 — 1 – 0 2 – 0 Namibia  1 – 2 2 – 1 — 4 – 2 Zimbabwe  0 – 0 0 – 0 2 – 0 —

Notes on the tie-breaking situation:

• Zimbabwe and Namibia are ranked by their overall goal difference.

Group 3

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Benin 6 4 0 2 12 8 +4 12  Angola 6 3 1 2 11 8 +3 10  Uganda 6 3 1 2 8 9 −1 10  Niger 6 1 0 5 5 11 −6 3

Angola  — 3 – 0 3 – 1 0 – 0 Benin  3 – 2 — 2 – 0 4 – 1 Niger  1 – 2 0 – 2 — 3 – 1 Uganda  3 – 1 2 – 1 1 – 0 —

Notes on the tie-breaking situation:

• Angola and Uganda are ranked by their overall goal difference.

Note:

• Angola are automatically qualified as hosts of the 2010 African Cup of Nations. However, they are subject to the same rules as other nations for continuation to the next stage of the qualifiers. Failure to advance from this group eliminates them from the qualifiers for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Group 4

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Nigeria 6 6 0 0 11 1 +10 18  South Africa 6 2 1 3 5 5 0 7  Sierra Leone 6 2 1 3 4 8 −4 7  Equatorial Guinea 6 1 0 5 4 10 −6 3

Equatorial Guinea  — 0 – 1 2 – 0 0 – 1 Nigeria  2 – 0 — 4 – 1 2 – 0 Sierra Leone  2 – 1 0 – 1 — 1 – 0 South Africa  4 – 1 0 – 1 0 – 0 —

Notes on the tie-breaking situation:

• South Africa and Sierra Leone are ranked by their overall goal difference.

Note:

• South Africa are automatically qualified as hosts of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. However, they are subject to the same rules as other nations for continuation to the next stage of the qualifiers. Failure to advance from this group eliminates them from the qualifiers for the 2010 African Cup of Nations.

Group 5

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Ghana 6 4 0 2 11 5 +6 12  Gabon 6 4 0 2 8 3 +5 12  Libya 6 4 0 2 7 4 +3 12  Lesotho 6 0 0 6 2 16 −14 0

Gabon  — 2 – 0 2 – 0 1 – 0 Ghana  2 – 0 — 3 – 0 3 – 0 Lesotho  0 – 3 2 – 3 — 0 – 1 Libya  1 – 0 1 – 0 4 – 0 —

Notes on the tie-breaking situation:

• Ghana, Gabon, and Libya are ranked by their overall goal difference.

Group 6

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Algeria 6 3 1 2 7 4 +3 10  Gambia 6 2 3 1 6 3 +3 9  Senegal 6 2 3 1 9 7 +2 9  Liberia 6 0 3 3 4 12 −8 3

Algeria  — 1 – 0 3 – 0 3 – 2 Gambia  1 – 0 — 3 – 0 0 – 0 Liberia  0 – 0 1 – 1 — 2 – 2 Senegal  1 – 0 1 – 1 3 – 1 —

Notes on the tie-breaking situation:

• Gambia and Senegal are ranked by their overall goal difference.

Group 7

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Côte d'Ivoire 6 3 3 0 10 2 +8 12  Mozambique 6 2 2 2 7 5 +2 8  Madagascar 6 1 3 2 2 7 −5 6  Botswana 6 1 2 3 3 8 −5 5

Botswana  — 1 – 1 0 – 0 0 – 1 Côte d'Ivoire  4 – 0 — 3 – 0 1 – 0 Madagascar  1 – 0 0 – 0 — 1 – 1 Mozambique  1 – 2 1 – 1 3 – 0 —

On 19 March 2008, FIFA announced the immediate suspension of the Malagasy Football Federation (FMF).⁷ The suspension was lifted on 19 May 2008.⁸

Group 8

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Morocco 4 3 0 1 11 5 +6 9  Rwanda 4 3 0 1 7 3 +4 9  Mauritania 4 0 0 4 2 12 −10 0

Mauritania  — 1 – 4 0 – 1 Morocco  4 – 1 — 2 – 0 Rwanda  3 – 0 3 – 1 —

Notes on the tie-breaking situation:

• Morocco and Rwanda are ranked by their overall goal difference.

 Ethiopia played four matches in this group, before FIFA announced the immediate suspension of the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) on 29 July 2008.⁹ On 12 September 2008, FIFA excluded the EFF from the 2010 World Cup qualifiers and the results of their matches were cancelled.¹⁰ While it was not clear if they were also explicitly excluded from the 2010 African Cup of Nations, their failure to complete the remaining fixtures effectively eliminated them from the tournament.

Group 9

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Burkina Faso 6 5 1 0 14 5 +9 16  Tunisia 6 4 1 1 11 3 +8 13  Burundi 6 2 0 4 5 9 −4 6  Seychelles 6 0 0 6 4 17 −13 0

Burkina Faso  — 2 – 0 4 – 1 0 – 0 Burundi  1 – 3 — 1 – 0 0 – 1 Seychelles  2 – 3 1 – 2 — 0 – 2 Tunisia  1 – 2 2 – 1 5 – 0 —

Group 10

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Mali 6 4 0 2 13 8 +5 12  Sudan 6 3 0 3 9 9 0 9  Congo 6 3 0 3 7 8 −1 9  Chad 6 2 0 4 7 11 −4 6

Chad  — 2 – 1 1 – 2 1 – 3 Congo  2 – 0 — 1 – 0 1 – 0 Mali  2 – 1