With 607 days until the opening of the 2010 World Cup South Africa, African Cup qualifying is heading to its final stage.
20 countries advanced into the final round of African qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup after an eventful weekend.
Along with the perennial crop of heavyweights, including nine previous Cup participants, the likes of Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Sudan also progressed, indication of the constantly shifting power balance on the continent.

The draw for the final round of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations took place today in Zurich, Switzerland.
So what happened?
African champions Egypt were handed what many would consider to be the best of the five group draws.

The Egyptians will face Algeria, Zambia and Rwanda in Group C as they attempt to reach their third World Cup finals.

Here, the latest scores from the latest round of 2010 World Cup and African Cup of Nations qualifiers...

The joint qualifying campaign will decide which five teams will join hosts South Africa at the World Cup in 2010.

The qualification process will also decide the 15 teams who will join host Angola to take part at the 2010 African Cup of Nations.

Interesting article from the Bangkok Post about how confusing the 2010 African World Cup qualifiers are. As they put it, 'FIFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) are on course to score an own goal' with their qualifier rules.
Basically, there's a situation where South Africa may have to lose or draw to make it to the next round (weird, I know.

It seems like just yesterday we were blogging about the finals of the African Cup of Nations tournament in Ghana.
But things move quickly in the world of football.
Today, news that the host nation of the 2010 African Cup of Nations, Angola, is confident their infrastructure will be ready in time for the tournament.

Now that South Africa have been eliminated from playing in the 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola ahead of hosting the 2010 World Cup, many in the nation are blaming the South African Football Association (Safa) for their football development programs.
Safa chief Raymond Hack doesn't respond kindly to these critics, calling them "idiots who do not know what development is.

Benin overcame the formidable challenge of Angola on Sunday to join Nigeria and Cameroon in the last phase of African qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

A 3-2 win in Cotonou for the small West African country came 24 hours after Cameroon had secured their progress by beating the Cape Verde Islands 2-1 in Praia.

South Africa national team coach Joel Santana says his side is almost to the point where they'll do reasonably well in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Santana's been the focal point of criticism the past few months as Bafana Bafana have struggled, failing to qualify for the 2010 African Cup of Nations.

Sounds like it was a ho-hum day for African World Cup/Cup of Nations qualifying, save for Malawi's 8-0 destruction of Djibouti.
There were no major surprises in the afternoon's eight games, with continental powerhouses Cameroon and Togo winning their respective engagements to take early leads in their groups.

Finally, some encouraging news regarding the safety of stadiums in Africa ahead of next month's World Cup and African Cup of Nations qualifiers.

All the stadiums under threat of being barred from hosting World Cup qualifying matches have been passed by FIFA.

Stadiums in Congo, DR Congo, Gambia, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and Zambia will be allowed to host matches in next month after having upgrades or starting the necessary improvements demanded by FIFA.

Now that South Africa has been eliminated from the 2010 African Cup of Nations, will South Africa coach Joel Santana get the boot?
A South African newspaper editorial from the Cape Times doesn't seem to think so.

The South African Football Association must stay calm and resist the urge to fire coach Joel Santana after Bafana Bafana failed to qualify for the African Nations Cup in Angola in 2010.