The 2010 World Cup Qualification process has finished and all of the 32 teams have been determined. There aren't too many surprises as many of the favorites such as Brazil, Spain, Italy, and England will all be there. Some nations such as France and Argentina struggled to advance but in the end will be there in South Africa.

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Estos son los 32 países clasificados a la XIX Copa Mundial de la FIFA, Sudáfrica 2010:
Por la UEFA: Alemania, Dinamarca, Eslovaquia, Eslovenia, España, Francia, Grecia, Holanda, Inglaterra, Italia, Portugal, Serbia y Suiza.
Por la Conmebol: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Paraguay y Uruguay. Click to continue reading...

Six teams qualified for next year's World Cup in South Africa today, finalizing the field that will compete in the first World Cup in African soil.

France, Slovenia, Uruguay, Portugal, Greece and Algeria advanced to the finals ending the dreams of Ireland, Russia, Costa Rica, Ukraine and Egypt in the process.

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African rivals Algeria and Egypt meet in Sudan today for a decisive FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifier that will see the victorious side book their place in South Africa next year. Now you can check out the action LIVE and for FREE courtesy of FIFA.com at this link. Kick off is at 12:30 EST. Here's the spiel from [. Click to continue reading...

Here are all the results and final scores from the African ( CAF) World Cup 2010 third round Qualifying games played on Saturday, November 14, 2009. The marquee game of the evening is obviously Egypt vs Algeria, but we have a few other intriguing qualifiers too. Group A Morocco vs Cameroon ( Kickoff time 15. Click to continue reading...

FIFA's official ranking system for nations was officially introduced in 1992. Initially it was a rather simplistic system, in which a win gave a team 3 points whilst a draw gave the team 1 point. This created a number of problems, based mainly around the fact that it didn't take into account that some countries continually played weaker nations and as a result would constantly rank higher than more accomplished sides.

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The World Cup of 2010 is already taking shape, with twenty-three of the 32 teams on offer having already staked a claim towards a tournament berth.
Already Qualified:
South Africa (CAF - as hosts)
Japan (AFC)
Australia (AFC)
South Korea (AFC)
Netherlands (UEFA)
North Korea (AFC)
Brazil (CONMEBOL)
Ghana (CAF)
England (UEFA)
Spain (UEFA)
Paraguay (CONMEBOL)
Cote d'Ivoire (CAF)
Germany (UEFA)
Denmark (UEFA)
Serbia (UEFA)
Italy (UEFA)
Chile (CONMEBOL)
Mexico (CONCACAF)
USA (CONCACAF)
Switzerland (UEFA)
Slovakia (UEFA)
Argentina (CONMEBOL)
Honduras (CONCACAF) Click to continue reading...

These Countries Will Be There:
South Africa (CAF - as hosts)
Japan (AFC)
Australia (AFC)
South Korea (AFC)
Netherlands (UEFA)
North Korea (AFC)
Brazil (CONMEBOL)
Ghana (CAF)
England (UEFA)
Spain (UEFA)
Paraguay (CONMEBOL)
Cote d'Ivoire (CAF)
Germany (UEFA)
Denmark (UEFA)
Serbia (UEFA)
Italy (UEFA)
Chile (CONMEBOL)
Mexico (CONCACAF)
USA (CONCACAF)
Here's the situation for those still on the path. Click to continue reading...

With less than 250 days left to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, the qualifying rounds are coming to an end in exciting matches that are determining who will come to South Africa next year and take their place in the Top 32 soccer teams in the world. This week will see the last of the 2010 qualifying games before the play-offs take place.

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The imagined community of millions seems more real as a team of eleven named people.
- Eric Hobsbawn

One of the many intriguing things about a World Cup is the rare but vivid display of nationhood. When else do countries from all corners of the world have the chance to present themselves as one coherent entity?

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The World Cup of 2010 is already taking shape, with eleven of the 32 teams on offer having already staked a claim towards a tournament berth.
The teams who have already qualified:
South Africa (CAF - as hosts)
Japan (AFC)
Australia (AFC)
South Korea (AFC)
Netherlands (UEFA)
North Korea (AFC)
Brazil (CONMEBOL)
Ghana (CAF)
England (UEFA)
Spain (UEFA)
Paraguay (CONMEBOL) Click to continue reading...

The African regions (CAF) is split into five Groups with the winner of each advancing to the FIFA 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa. The host country (South Africa) is already qualified and several other African nations are on the verge of earning qualification. On Wednesday, Sepember 9, 2009 there was only match, Cameroon v Gabon in Group Three.

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The World Cup of 2010 is already taking shape, with seven of the 32 teams on offer having already staked a claim towards a tournament berth.
In trouble...
The teams who have already qualified:
South Africa (CAF - as hosts)
Japan (AFC)
Australia (AFC)
South Korea (AFC)
Netherlands (UEFA)
North Korea (AFC)
Brazil (CONMEBOL)
Ghana (CAF)
So, that leaves space for 24 more countries. Click to continue reading...

by GIANFRANCO PANIZO

Brazil and Ghana were the latest teams to book their place in next year's World Cup, posting wins over the weekend to make the picture of which teams will be in South Africa a little clearer.

Brazil became the first team from CONMEBOL to secure its place by disposing of arch-rivals Argentina, 3-1.

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by GIANFRANCO PANIZO

Brazil and Ghana were the latest teams to book their place in next year's World Cup, posting wins over the weekend to make the picture of which teams will be in South Africa a little clearer.

Brazil became the first team from CONMEBOL to secure its place by disposing of arch-rivals Argentina, 3-1.

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Tuesday night saw the return of football hooliganism to England after stabbings outside the West Ham United vs Milwall League Cup match, but there's been a small step forward in the battle against violence in Argentine football. You've probably not heard of Rodrigo Silvera if you're not Argentine. Back in November (the 1st, to be [. Click to continue reading...

There were a few continental milestones hit in 1988 with respect to the World Club Rankings annual rankings. One was a last, one was a first. The last was for CONMEBOL. Argentina's Newell's Old Boys became the final South American club to date to finish atop the World Club Rankings annual chart. Click to continue reading...

1) First of all, Voros has posted his latest qualifying odds which are always extremely fascinating. Anyone who enjoys this blog would enjoy that post. According to him, the teams on course to qualify are:
(italics = already qualified)
AFC Australia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, North Korea CAF South Africa, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Tunisia, Gabon, Algeria CONCACAF USA, Costa Rica, Mexico, Honduras CONMEBOL Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile UEFA Netherlands, Spain, England, Germany, Denmark, Italy, France, Greece, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Russia, Czech Republic
2) As those odds show (and most people still believe), Mexico really doesn't have too much to worry about. Click to continue reading...

All the major football rivalries from African club football: Featured Derby: The Cairo Derby, Cairo, Egypt Al Ahly vs Zamalek The showpiece of Egyptian Football, and arguably the highlight of the Arab footballing calender. Games between these Egyptian giants are so hotly contested that foreign referees are brought in to officiate. Click to continue reading...

The draw for the final round of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations was completed in Zurich on October 21, 2008. The 20 African nations remaining were drawn into five groups of four teams each. The five group winners qualify directly for the FIFA 2010 World Cup finals. The top three teams [. Click to continue reading...

The Confederation of African Football named its shortlist of five for 2008 African Footballer of the Year yesterday, and Didier Drogba's name was on there. Problem is: Didier Drogba wants nothing to do with the award. Seems odd to not want to be named the best player in your confederation, but Drogba has his reasons: After [. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor, fresh of his four goals scored against Swaziland last Saturday, was nominated for the CAF Best African Footballer of the World award. The nominees are: Mohamed Abou-Treika (Ahli, Egypt), Amr Zaki (Wigan Athletic, Egypt), Didier Drogba (Chelsea, Ivory Coast), Michael Essien (Chelsea, Ghana), Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal, Togo). Click to continue reading...

Unfancied CFR Cluj and FC BATE Borisov have made good starts to their UEFA Champions League campaigns (Cluj are still unbeaten after playing Roma away and Chelsea at home). But they have a long long way to go to match Dynamos FC of Harare, Zimbabwe. Despite facing multiple political and economic problems (eg Robert Mugabe and [. Click to continue reading...

In this section, we give our take on one of the most hotly-contested issues in US Soccer. In a brief September 8th article, we brought up the debate on the difficulty of CONCACAF away Qualifiers, citing Ives Galarcep's "Hazards of road qualifiers" and Luis Bueno's "Debunking the myth." While looking through Soccer by Ives this morning [. Click to continue reading...

"And he also let us stay up really late too."
Sir Alex: So, what...och aye, what did do when Carlos was around?
Rio: We did some boxes. Like played a game with three guys keeping the ball away from another one.
Sir Alex: Okay then. Do that then. That sounds good. Click to continue reading...

Earlier this week I talked about how combining CONCACAF and CONMEBOL would make sense but it's all but a pipe dream.
A reader though picked up on the idea and formulated his own concept of a new football region and how it would look like. It gets my stamp of approval.
From reader Brian:
Combine North and South America into a single football federation
(Federacion Americana de Futbol or Confederacion Americana de Futbol)
and run the World Cup qualifying, the federation cup (Copa America),
and the champions league similar to UEFA. Click to continue reading...

I'm not giving England the picture 'cause it's easy, it was actually the most compelling match-up of the day.
Holy freakin' Theo Walcott. The teenager with a hat trick, are you kidding me? Dang kid.
England 4-1 over Croatia.
Other highlights? Denmark beats Portugal. Sweden, Israel and Greece pick up much needed wins. Click to continue reading...

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.

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I know that this post is off topic for this blog, and I know that what I'm going to say will never happen, but I was bored. Forget about the UEFA Champions League, CONCACAF Champions League, and any other such thing. There should be a true FIFA Club World Cup. The top 32 teams from around the world will meet in order to crown the true club champion. Click to continue reading...

- A group of MLS executives are set to visit Portland, Oregon, to assess the feasibility of placing an expansion franchise there by 2012. The committee will meet with Merritt Paulson among other local officials and businessmen to determine whether they have the proper facilities to maintain a club. The startup cost of an MLS franchise is $20m.
- The International Olympic Committee has placed their support behind UEFA President Michel Platini in his quest to take football out of the hands of profit for the better of the sport. Click to continue reading...