The groups for the Africa Cup of Nations 2010 were drawn today, which should go at least some way to cheering up teams like Egypt and Tunisia who very narrowly missed the World Cup 2010 boat.

The tournament takes place in Angola from January 10th to January 31st, 2010. We've got blogs and bloggers for 12 of the 16 teams involved in the tournament.

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All 32 teams for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa are now known.
The complete line up is:
Europe
Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland
Africa
Algeria, Cameroon, Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa (hosts)
Asia
Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea
South America
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay
North & Central America, Caribbean
Honduras, Mexico, USA
Oceania
New Zealand
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Qualification is officially over. Playoffs won, tears shed, hearts broken and dreams renewed, it's all over. After Uruguay withstood the Costa Rican pressure late in the evening, the final 32 teams were written into stone though not without a fair bit of controversy.

The following are those 32 teams who will take part in South Africa 2010.

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Liverpool striker David Ngog has been approached by Cameroon to play for the African country.
Ngog, who has played for France from Under 16 level through to Under 21, qualifies for Cameroon through his father.
Cameroon coach Paul Le Guen is keen for Ngog to change his allegiance ahead of the African Cup of Nations and World Cup. Click to continue reading...

Now that we have the official list of thd 32 nations taking part in next summers World Cup Finals, all eyes are on the draw December 4th and how teams will be seeded for that draw.

There will be eight groups of four teams, so FIFA needs to split the 32 countries into 4 categories. According to FIFA's regulations:

"The FIFA Organising Committee forms groups for the final competition by seeding and drawing lots whilst taking sports and geographic factors into consideration, as far as possible.

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Yesterday, the World Cup field was finalized. There were 6 play-off games that were all pretty exciting. My favorite was Algeria sending Egypt home. I'm also glad that Ireland were eliminated on such a controversial goal. I've never liked them.

Here are the 32 teams that will compete.

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Hosts South Africa

Europe England, Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Denmark, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, France

Africa Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria

Asia Japan, Australia, South Korea, North Korea

Oceania New Zealand

Concacaf United States, Mexico, Honduras

South America Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay

Interactive Guide

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With Uruguay seeing off Costa Rica, the field for World Cup 2010 has been completed.Africa - Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, South AfricaAsia - Australia, Japan, North Korea, South KoreaEurope - Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, SwitzerlandNorth America - Honduras, Mexico, United StatesOceania - New Click to continue reading...

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger denied that Samir Nasri will fill the gap to be left by Alex Song when the Cameroon International will be involved in the African Cup of Nations. Speaking on Tuesday, the Frenchman ... Click to continue reading...

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger denied that Samir Nasri will fill the gap to be left by Alex Song when the Cameroon International will be involved in the African Cup of Nations. Speaking on Tuesday, the Frenchman ...

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The former Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o promised his fellow countrymen that he will buy each of his teammates a £30,000 watch should they qualify for the 2010 World Cup. Last weekend after their 2-0 win over Morocco, Eto'o made good on his promise and gifted the same watch to all of his teammates.

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This is what an allergy to water would look like, I presume. This is how years of therapy start. (Water Cooler Offside) The mathematics of a statistic. (Uli Hesse) The truthiness behind Lampard's plane injury. (Studs Up) Samuel Eto'o dishes out some expensive watches for his Cameroonian teammates. (The Spoiler) FIFA wages war against Iraq. Click to continue reading...

Good piece by Henry Winter in todays Telegraph, about how dangerous a First Round Draw England could get despite the fact that we will almost certainly be seeded (won't be officially announced untill all the teams are through and FIFA has worked out the best way to get the big teams through the fairest way for everyone to play against each other.

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If it was drama you wanted, African World Cup qualifying was the place to be this weekend. Nigeria and Cameroon became the latest teams through to the finals - joining Ghana, Ivory Coast and hosts South Africa - but in very different circumstances.
The scene in Cairo. Wednesday's match will be in "nuetral" Sudan. Click to continue reading...

According to Football Italia, Samuel Eto'o has cemented his reputation as the Oprah Winfrey of footballers by giving each and every member of the Cameroon national team, which he captains, a £30,000 watch simply because they qualified for the World Cup.

Meanwhile, every other national team captain is cursing his name for making them look bad.

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Three more countries are going to South Africa!!!Cameroon, Nigeria, and New Zealand have booked their tickets to the 2010 World Cup. Nigeria and Cameroon have won their respective groups in the African qualifiers while New Zealand beat Bahrain in the 2nd leg of their playoff match.Results from the 1st leg playoff matches:Costa Rica 0 – 1 UruguayIreland 0 – 1 FrancePortugal 1 – 0 BosniaGreece 0 –

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Welcome to the World Cup party New Zealand, Nigeria and Cameroon!
Egypt scored a goal in the 5th minute of extra time against Algeria to keep its W.C. dream alive, it needed a 2-0 result. The rematch between the two teams is Wednesday in Sudan.
Here are the results of the UEFA playoff first legs: Russia 2-1 Slovenia, Ireland 0-1 France, Portugal 1-0 Bosnia, Ukraine 0-0 Greece. Click to continue reading...

This weekend was the World Cup qualifying climax in Africa, and there was plenty of qualification drama to go around. The winners of each of the five groups qualified for World Cup 2010, and everyone else missed out. But there was a pretty decent consolation prize for the ten second and third placed teams, as World Cup qualifying doubles as Africa Cup of Nations qualifying and the top three in each group qualified for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations (also known as the African Nations Cup, ACN and CAN) in Angola.

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Another fan forgets that these goals don't count Previous pitch invader goals have included a sweetly struck penalty and a nice team move. This looked more like a Gaelic football goal than anything. Also, if OTP was partaking in such tomfoolery we don't think our venue of choice would be in Morocco. Click to continue reading...

A few NSC programming notes: there will be no Who likes goals? today, there will be a U.S. v Denmark LIVE post on Wednesday and I will name my own MLS Best XI at S365 later in the week. And now, your Monday morning croissants, juice and papers...#1 - The World Cup finals field for South Africa is now at 26, with Cameroon capping their glorious table comeback with a 2-0 closing day win (as Click to continue reading...

New Zealand, Nigeria and Cameroon all joined the list of qualifiers today, whilst Russia, France and Portugal all won the first legs of their UEFA region playoff games. The only stalemate was the goalless draw in Athens between Greece and Ukraine; Costa Rica play Uruguay in the first leg of their playoff at 02:00 GMT on Sunday so we'll have news of what happened in that one bright and early tomorrow morning.

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If you read our African World Cup qualifying finale preview post yesterday, then you knew that Egypt vs Algeria was big. Historic bad feeling, exacerbated by Egyptian fans attacking the Algerian team bus in Cairo big. There was also the beautifully weighted qualification situation in Group C, where Egypt needed to beat Algeria by three goals or more to qualify for World Cup 2010 at Algeria's expense.

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Cameroon and Nigeria have guaranteed a spot in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa today. Cameroon beat Morroco 2-0 (second goal by Eto'o) and Nigeria beat Kenya 3 2.

So far 26 countries are going to South Africa next June: Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Mexico, USA, Honduras, Netherlands, Spain, England, Germany, Denmark, Serbia, Italy, Slovakia, Switzerland, South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Australian, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon, New Zealand and South Africa.

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Cameroon made it through to the South Africa 2010 thanks to goals from Mallorca striker Pierre Webo and Inter Milan goal machine Samuel Eto'o.

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0-1 Webo

0-2 Eto'o

Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager!

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On a weekend like this one it is nigh on impossible to choose a mere 3 To See. We are at the sharp end of four years worth of toil and gruelling hard work, which all culminates over the next few days... Click to continue reading...

(*it's the opposite of Offside Rewind)

FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty

Rather than looking back at the week that was, let's look forward to this weekend's World Cup qualifying games by linking up all the WorldCupBlog previews.

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It's the World Cup 2010 qualification finale in Africa this weekend, with three spots at the big show still up for grabs. South Africa are qualified as hosts. Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire join them having already won Groups D and E respectively.

That leaves three groups undecided with just one round of games to go, and those games are this weekend.

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by TRAVIS CLARK

Three more World Cup spots will be sealed on Saturday, and with the tournament held in the same continent, desperation will be at a maximum as African qualification finishes. Two spots are already held by the continent's two best teams, as Ghana and the Ivory Coast have both safely secured a place in the World Cup.

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This weekend begins the final stage of World Cup qualifying. 23 teams have already secured their place. The race is on for the final nine coveted spots. Three of these spots will be going to African sides. Cameroon and Gabon are fighting for one of them. Cameroon has a one point ... Click to continue reading...

From hero to zero. It could easily be the story of Cameroon International Alex Song who according to many last season, was not good enough to play for Arsenal. But this year, the 22-year old is ...

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From hero to zero. It could easily be the story of Cameroon International Alex Song who according to many last season, was not good enough to play for Arsenal. But this year, the 22-year old is ... Click to continue reading...

Alexandre Dimitri Song Billong, born 9 September 1987 in a Cameroon, fondly known by most as Alex Song. He's the nephew of Rigobert Song and plays in the heart of a midfield three at our fine club.

It is only now though that he is regarded as an important first team player for Arsenal by some, and I am firmly in that category.

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In happier timesvia Yahoo!UK/Eurosport:Tottenham's injury problems show no signs of abating, as Sebastien Bassong has revealed he is likely to be out for a month with a hamstring problem.The classy Cameroon defender played the entire 90 minutes of Spurs' 3-0 defeat at Arsenal on Saturday, but manager Harry Redknapp said after the game that Bassong had picked up an injury. Click to continue reading...

The FIFA World Rankings were released today with little change in the top ten. The one exception is Russia dropping several spots, and Portugal moving into the top 10. The top 2 remain unchanged with Brazil on top and Spain close behind. The rest of the top ten is the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England, Croatia, France, and Portugal.

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23 nations are in the World Cup. That leaves 9 spots. And by November 18th, we will know who is going to have fun next summer and who only be playing friendlies. 19 nations are still alive. They are:

New Zealand, Bahrain, Costa Rica, Uruguay, France, Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, Russia, Bosnia, Ireland, Ukraine, Cameroon, Gabon, Tunisia, Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt.

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