2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

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

Qualification for championships (CAF)
FIFA World Cup
Africa Cup of Nations
Result:
  Countries that qualified for the 2010 World Cup and 2010 African Cup of Nations
  Countries that qualified for the 2010 African Cup of Nations
  Countries that did not qualify for the 2010 World Cup or 2010 African Cup of Nations
  Countries that withdrew or were disqualified
■ Host nation of the 2010 World Cup
◆ Host nation of the 2010 African Cup of Nations

In total, 53 nations participated; however, due to the presence of the two tournaments' respective hosts, 52 teams were involved in each competition. South Africa qualified automatically as host for the World Cup,[1] and Angola qualified as host for the African Cup of Nations. Both nevertheless competed in the qualifying phase to attempt to qualify for the other tournament.

This was the first time since 1934 that the hosts would compete in World Cup qualifiers. Angola's situation mirrored 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]

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 1st leg 2nd 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]

Pot A Pot B Pot C Pot D

 Cameroon
 Nigeria
 Ivory Coast
 Morocco
 Ghana
 Tunisia
 Egypt
 Guinea
 Senegal
 Mali
 Angola
 Togo

 Zambia
 South Africa
 Cape Verde
 DR Congo
 Algeria
 Burkina Faso
 Benin
 Mozambique
 Libya
 Ethiopia
 Congo
 Zimbabwe

 Uganda
 Botswana
 Equatorial Guinea
 Tanzania
 Gabon
 Malawi
 Sudan
 Burundi
 Liberia
 Rwanda
 Eritrea
 Namibia

 Gambia
 Mauritania
 Kenya
 Chad
 Lesotho
 Mauritius
 Niger
 Swaziland
 Seychelles
 Sierra Leone
 Madagascar
 Djibouti

Legend
Countries that advanced to the Third round

Group 1
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Cameroon 6 5 1 0 14 2 +12 16 — 2–0 2–1 5–0
 Cape Verde 6 3 0 3 7 8 −1 9 1–2 — 1–0 3–1
 Tanzania 6 2 2 2 9 6 +3 8 0–0 3–1 — 1–1
 Mauritius 6 0 1 5 3 17 −14 1 0–3 0–1 1–4 —
Source:

Group 2
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Guinea 6 3 2 1 9 5 +4 11 — 3–2 0–0 4–0
 Kenya 6 3 1 2 8 5 +3 10 2–0 — 2–0 1–0
 Zimbabwe 6 1 3 2 4 6 −2 6[lower-alpha 1] 0–0 0–0 — 2–0
 Namibia 6 2 0 4 7 12 −5 6[lower-alpha 1] 1–2 2–1 4–2 —
Source:
Notes:
  1. 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 — 3–2 4–1 2–0
 Angola 6 3 1 2 11 8 +3 10[lower-alpha 1] 3–0 — 0–0 3–1
 Uganda 6 3 1 2 8 9 −1 10[lower-alpha 1] 2–1 3–1 — 1–0
 Niger 6 1 0 5 5 11 −6 3 0–2 1–2 3–1 —
Source:
Notes:
  1. Angola and Uganda are ranked by their overall goal difference.

Note: Angola were automatically qualified as hosts of the 2010 African Cup of Nations. However, they were subject to the same rules as other nations for continuation to the next stage of the qualifiers. Failure to advance from this group eliminated 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 — 2–0 4–1 2–0
 South Africa 6 2 1 3 5 5 0 7[lower-alpha 1] 0–1 — 0–0 4–1
 Sierra Leone 6 2 1 3 4 8 −4 7[lower-alpha 1] 0–1 1–0 — 2–1
 Equatorial Guinea 6 1 0 5 4 10 −6 3 0–1 0–1 2–0 —
Source:
Notes:
  1. South Africa and Sierra Leone are ranked by their overall goal difference.

Note: South Africa were automatically qualified as hosts of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. However, they were subject to the same rules as other nations for continuation to the next stage of the qualifiers. Failure to advance from this group eliminated 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[lower-alpha 1] — 2–0 3–0 3–0
 Gabon 6 4 0 2 8 3 +5 12[lower-alpha 1] 2–0 — 1–0 2–0
 Libya 6 4 0 2 7 4 +3 12[lower-alpha 1] 1–0 1–0 — 4–0
 Lesotho 6 0 0 6 2 16 −14 0 2–3 0–3 0–1 —
Source:
Notes:
  1. 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 — 1–0 3–2 3–0
 Gambia 6 2 3 1 6 3 +3 9[lower-alpha 1] 1–0 — 0–0 3–0
 Senegal 6 2 3 1 9 7 +2 9[lower-alpha 1] 1–0 1–1 — 3–1
 Liberia 6 0 3 3 4 12 −8 3 0–0 1–1 2–2 —
Source:
Notes:
  1. Gambia and Senegal are ranked by their overall goal difference.

Group 7
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Ivory Coast 6 3 3 0 10 2 +8 12 — 1–0 3–0 4–0
 Mozambique 6 2 2 2 7 5 +2 8 1–1 — 3–0 1–2
 Madagascar 6 1 3 2 2 7 −5 6 0–0 1–1 — 1–0
 Botswana 6 1 2 3 3 8 −5 5 1–1 0–1 0–0 —
Source:

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[lower-alpha 1] — 2–0 4–1
 Rwanda 4 3 0 1 7 3 +4 9[lower-alpha 1] 3–1 — 3–0
 Mauritania 4 0 0 4 2 12 −10 0 1–4 0–1 —
Source:
Notes:
  1. 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 — 0–0 2–0 4–1
 Tunisia 6 4 1 1 11 3 +8 13 1–2 — 2–1 5–0
 Burundi 6 2 0 4 5 9 −4 6 1–3 0–1 — 1–0
 Seychelles 6 0 0 6 4 17 −13 0 2–3 0–2 1–2 —
Source:

Group 10
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Mali 6 4 0 2 13 8 +5 12 — 3–0 4–2 2–1
 Sudan 6 3 0 3 9 9 0 9[lower-alpha 1] 3–2 — 2–0 1–2
 Congo 6 3 0 3 7 8 −1 9[lower-alpha 1] 1–0 1–0 — 2–0
 Chad 6 2 0 4 7 11 −4 6 1–2 1–3 2–1 —
Source:
Notes:
  1. Sudan and Congo are ranked by their overall goal difference.

On 28 March 2008, FIFA announced the immediate suspension of the Chadian Football Federation.[11] The suspension was lifted on 7 May 2008.[12]

Chad was disqualified from the 2010 African Nations Cup qualifiers after failing to show up for their away match against Sudan, despite security guarantees. The match was subsequently rescheduled. Only matches between Mali, Sudan and Congo were taken into account for the qualification of the second round of the preliminaries of the African Cup of Nations. However, Chad was still able qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.[13] This could have led to complications if Chad had advanced to the next round or if Chad's exclusion the now alternate group standings had produced different group winners and impacted on the ranking of the second-placed side.

For African Cup of Nations qualification:

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Mali 4 2 0 2 9 6 +3 6[lower-alpha 1] — 3–0 4–2
 Sudan 4 2 0 2 5 6 −1 6[lower-alpha 1] 3–2 — 2–0
 Congo 4 2 0 2 4 6 −2 6[lower-alpha 1] 1–0 1–0 —
Source:
Notes:
  1. Mali, Sudan and Congo are ranked by their overall goal difference.

Group 11
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Zambia 4 2 1 1 2 1 +1 7 — 1–0 1–0
 Togo 4 2 0 2 8 3 +5 6 1–0 — 6–0
 Swaziland 4 1 1 2 2 8 −6 4 0–0 2–1 —
Source:

Eritrea withdrew from the qualifiers on 25 March 2008 and were not replaced.[14]

Group 12
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Egypt 6 5 0 1 13 2 +11 15 — 2–0 2–1 4–0
 Malawi 6 4 0 2 14 5 +9 12 1–0 — 2–1 8–1
 DR Congo 6 3 0 3 14 6 +8 9 0–1 1–0 — 5–1
 Djibouti 6 0 0 6 2 30 −28 0 0–4 0–3 0–6 —
Source:

Rankings of runners-up

Along with the 12 group winners, the 8 highest-ranked runners-up also advanced to the third round. Because not all groups contained an equal number of teams, only results against the first- and third-placed teams in each group counted.

Grp Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
8  Rwanda 4 3 0 1 7 3 +4 9
2  Kenya 4 2 1 1 6 3 +3 7
9  Tunisia 4 2 1 1 4 3 +1 7
11  Togo 4 2 0 2 8 3 +5 6
5  Gabon 4 2 0 2 3 3 0 6
10  Sudan 4 2 0 2 5 6 −1 6
12  Malawi 4 2 0 2 3 4 −1 6
7  Mozambique 4 1 2 1 5 3 +2 5
6  Gambia 4 1 2 1 2 2 0 5
3  Angola 4 1 1 2 6 6 0 4
1  Cape Verde 4 1 0 3 3 7 −4 3
4  South Africa 4 0 1 3 0 4 −4 1
Source:
Rules for classification: 1. Total points, 2. Goal difference, 3. Goals scored, 4. Away goals scored, 5. A play-off decider at a neutral ground (if necessary)

Third round
Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – CAF Third Round

The 20 remaining sides were split into five groups of four. The draw for the groups took place on 22 October 2008 in Zürich, Switzerland.[15]

The five group winners qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and were joined by the group runners-up and third-placed teams in qualifying for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations.

Seeding

Teams were seeded based on their FIFA World Rankings in October 2008 (number in parentheses).[16] One team from each of the following pots was drawn into each group.[17]

Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4

 Cameroon (12)
 Egypt (22)
 Ghana (25)
 Nigeria (27)
 Ivory Coast (29)

 Guinea (41)
 Morocco (43)
 Tunisia (47)
 Mali (53)
 Algeria (56)

 Burkina Faso (63)
 Gabon (67)
 Zambia (70)
 Kenya (79)
 Benin (81)

 Rwanda (87)
 Togo (91)
 Mozambique (100)
 Sudan (106)
 Malawi (109)

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

Group A
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Cameroon 6 4 1 1 9 2 +7 13 — 2–1 3–0 0–0
 Gabon 6 3 0 3 9 7 +2 9 0–2 — 3–0 3–1
 Togo 6 2 2 2 3 7 −4 8 1–0 1–0 — 1–1
 Morocco 6 0 3 3 3 8 −5 3 0–2 1–2 0–0 —
Source:

Group B
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Nigeria 6 3 3 0 9 4 +5 12 — 2–2 1–0 3–0
 Tunisia 6 3 2 1 7 4 +3 11 0–0 — 2–0 1–0
 Mozambique 6 2 1 3 3 5 −2 7 0–0 1–0 — 1–0
 Kenya 6 1 0 5 5 11 −6 3 2–3 1–2 2–1 —
Source:

Group C
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Algeria 6 4 1 1 9 4 +5 13[lower-alpha 1] — 3–1 1–0 3–1
 Egypt 6 4 1 1 9 4 +5 13[lower-alpha 1] 2–0 — 1–1 3–0
 Zambia 6 1 2 3 2 5 −3 5 0–2 0–1 — 1–0
 Rwanda 6 0 2 4 1 8 −7 2 0–0 0–1 0–0 —
Source:
Notes:
  1. Algeria and Egypt finished with identical overall and head-to-head records. Algeria won the tiebreaking play-off 1–0 to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Egypt 0–1 Algeria
Report Yahia  40'
Attendance: 40,000

Group D
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Ghana 6 4 1 1 9 3 +6 13 — 1–0 2–2 2–0
 Benin 6 3 1 2 6 6 0 10 1–0 — 1–1 1–0
 Mali 6 2 3 1 8 7 +1 9 0–2 3–1 — 1–0
 Sudan 6 0 1 5 2 9 −7 1 0–2 1–2 1–1 —
Source:

Group E
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Ivory Coast 6 5 1 0 19 4 +15 16 — 5–0 5–0 3–0
 Burkina Faso 6 4 0 2 10 11 −1 12 2–3 — 1–0 4–2
 Malawi 6 1 1 4 4 11 −7 4 1–1 0–1 — 2–1
 Guinea 6 1 0 5 7 14 −7 3 1–2 1–2 2–1 —
Source:

Qualified teams

The following six teams from CAF qualified for the final tournament.

Team Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
 South AfricaHosts15 May 20042 (1998, 2002)
 CameroonThird round Group A winners14 November 20095 (1982, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002)
 NigeriaThird round Group B winners14 November 20093 (1994, 1998, 2002)
 AlgeriaThird round Group C winners18 November 20092 (1982, 1986)
 GhanaThird round Group D winners6 September 20091 (2006)
 Ivory CoastThird round Group E winners10 October 20091 (2006)
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers

There were 506 goals scored over 198 games, for an average of 2.54 goals per game.

12 goals

9 goals

8 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

References
  1. FIFA.com Archived 10 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Hosts South Africa to play in 2010 World Cup qualifiers". Archived from the original on 31 December 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2007.
  3. FIFA World Cup qualifiers get underway in Africa
  4. African pair pull out of qualifying race
  5. Second place Clarification Archived June 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, FIFA, retrieved 15 June 2008
  6. Preliminary Draw Information - Africa, FIFA, retrieved 23 November 2007
  7. "Malagasy Football Association suspended". FIFA. 19 March 2008. Archived from the original on 23 March 2008. Retrieved 29 March 2008.
  8. "Suspension of the Madagascan football association lifted". FIFA. 19 May 2008. Archived from the original on 20 May 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2008.
  9. "Ethiopian Football Federation suspended". FIFA. 29 July 2008. Archived from the original on 7 August 2008. Retrieved 29 July 2008.
  10. "Ethiopia excluded from the preliminary competition". FIFA. 12 September 2008. Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2008.
  11. "FIFA suspends Chad soccer federation because of government interference". Yahoo! Sports. 28 March 2008. Retrieved 28 March 2008.
  12. "Suspension of the Chad football association lifted". FIFA. 7 May 2008. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 8 May 2008.
  13. "Disqualification of Chad National team from ACN 2010". CAF. 3 June 2008. Archived from the original on 20 June 2008. Retrieved 4 June 2008.
  14. "Eritrea withdraw from qualifiers". FIFA. 25 March 2008. Retrieved 25 March 2008.
  15. "Date Set For World Cup Qualifiers Draw". MTNFootball. 19 September 2008. Archived from the original on 18 October 2008. Retrieved 21 September 2008.
  16. African seeds established, FIFA, retrieved 13 October 2008
  17. 3rd stage format and draw, FIFA, retrieved 22 October 2008
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