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.

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

Tournament details
Dates	14 October 2007 – 18 November 2009
Teams	51[1] (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	202
Goals scored	505 (2.5 per match)
Attendance	4,219,427 (20,888 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Moumouni Dagano (12 goals)
← 2006 2014 →

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,^[2] 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.^[3]

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:^[4]

•  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.^[5] 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.Tooltip Aggregate score	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.^[6]

Seeding

One team from each of the following pots were drawn into each group.^[7]

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

Group 1

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Cameroon	6	5	1	0	14	2	+12	16	Advance to third round		—	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: ^[8]

Group 2

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Guinea	6	3	2	1	9	5	+4	11	Advance to third round		—	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			0–0	0–0	—	2–0
Namibia	6	2	0	4	7	12	−5	6			1–2	2–1	4–2	—

Source: ^[8]

Group 3

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Benin	6	4	0	2	12	8	+4	12	Advance to third round		—	3–2	4–1	2–0
Angola	6	3	1	2	11	8	+3	10			3–0	—	0–0	3–1
Uganda	6	3	1	2	8	9	−1	10			2–1	3–1	—	1–0
Niger	6	1	0	5	5	11	−6	3			0–2	1–2	3–1	—

Source: ^[8]

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 v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Nigeria	6	6	0	0	11	1	+10	18	Advance to third round		—	2–0	4–1	2–0
South Africa	6	2	1	3	5	5	0	7			0–1	—	0–0	4–1
Sierra Leone	6	2	1	3	4	8	−4	7			0–1	1–0	—	2–1
Equatorial Guinea	6	1	0	5	4	10	−6	3			0–1	0–1	2–0	—

Source: ^[8]

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 v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Ghana	6	4	0	2	11	5	+6	12	Advance to third round		—	2–0	3–0	3–0
Gabon	6	4	0	2	8	3	+5	12			2–0	—	1–0	2–0
Libya	6	4	0	2	7	4	+3	12			1–0	1–0	—	4–0
Lesotho	6	0	0	6	2	16	−14	0			2–3	0–3	0–1	—

Source: ^[8]

Group 6

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Algeria	6	3	1	2	7	4	+3	10	Advance to third round		—	1–0	3–2	3–0
Gambia	6	2	3	1	6	3	+3	9			1–0	—	0–0	3–0
Senegal	6	2	3	1	9	7	+2	9			1–0	1–1	—	3–1
Liberia	6	0	3	3	4	12	−8	3			0–0	1–1	2–2	—

Source: ^[8]

Group 7

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Ivory Coast	6	3	3	0	10	2	+8	12	Advance to third round		—	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: ^[8]

On 19 March 2007, FIFA announced the immediate suspension of the Malagasy Football Federation (FMF).^[9] The suspension was lifted on 19 May 2008.^[10]

Group 8

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Morocco	4	3	0	1	11	5	+6	9	Advance to third round		—	2–0	4–1	3–0
Rwanda	4	3	0	1	7	3	+4	9			3–1	—	3–0	Canc.
Mauritania	4	0	0	4	2	12	−10	0			1–4	0–1	—	0–1
Ethiopia[lower-alpha 1]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Suspended		Canc.	1–2	6–1	—

Source: ^[8]
Notes:

1. Ethiopia were excluded from the competition due to FIFA's suspension of the Ethiopian Football Federation on 29 July 2008, and the results of their matches were annulled.^[11]

Ethiopia played four matches in this group, before FIFA announced the immediate suspension of the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) on 29 July 2008.^[12] On 12 September 2008, FIFA excluded the EFF from the 2010 World Cup qualifiers and the results of their matches were cancelled.^[13] 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 v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Burkina Faso	6	5	1	0	14	5	+9	16	Advance to third round		—	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: ^[8]

Group 10

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Mali	6	4	0	2	13	8	+5	12	Advance to third round		—	3–0	4–2	2–1
Sudan	6	3	0	3	9	9	0	9			3–2	—	2–0	1–2
Congo	6	3	0	3	7	8	−1	9			1–0	1–0	—	2–0
Chad	6	2	0	4	7	11	−4	6			1–2	1–3	2–1	—

Source: ^[8]

On 28 March 2008, FIFA announced the immediate suspension of the Chadian Football Federation.^[14] The suspension was lifted on 7 May 2008.^[15]

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.^[16] 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: ^{[citation needed]}
Notes:

1. Mali, Sudan and Congo are ranked by their overall goal difference.

Group 11

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Zambia	4	2	1	1	2	1	+1	7	Advance to third round		—	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: ^[8]

Eritrea withdrew from the qualifiers on 25 March 2008 and were not replaced.^[17]

Group 12

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Egypt	6	5	0	1	13	2	+11	15	Advance to third round		—	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: ^[8]

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 v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
8	Rwanda	4	3	0	1	7	3	+4	9	Advance to third round
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: ^[8]

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.^[18]

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).^[19] One team from each of the following pots was drawn into each group.^[20]

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)

Group A

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Cameroon	6	4	1	1	9	2	+7	13	Qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2010 Africa Cup of Nations		—	2–1	3–0	0–0
Gabon	6	3	0	3	9	7	+2	9	Qualified for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations		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: ^[8]

Group B

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Nigeria	6	3	3	0	9	4	+5	12	Qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2010 Africa Cup of Nations		—	2–2	1–0	3–0
Tunisia	6	3	2	1	7	4	+3	11	Qualified for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations		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: ^[8]

Group C

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Algeria	6	4	1	1	9	4	+5	13[lower-alpha 1]	Qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2010 Africa Cup of Nations		—	3–1	1–0	3–1
Egypt	6	4	1	1	9	4	+5	13[lower-alpha 1]	Qualified for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations		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: ^[8]
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.

Group D

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Ghana	6	4	1	1	9	3	+6	13	Qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2010 Africa Cup of Nations		—	1–0	2–2	2–0
Benin	6	3	1	2	6	6	0	10	Qualified for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations		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: ^[8]

Group E

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Ivory Coast	6	5	1	0	19	4	+15	16	Qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2010 Africa Cup of Nations		—	5–0	5–0	3–0
Burkina Faso	6	4	0	2	10	11	−1	12	Qualified for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations		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: ^[8]

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 Africa	Hosts	15 May 2004	2 (1998, 2002)
Cameroon	Third round Group A winners	14 November 2009	5 (1982, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002)
Nigeria	Third round Group B winners	14 November 2009	3 (1994, 1998, 2002)
Algeria	Tiebreaking play-off winners	18 November 2009	2 (1982, 1986)
Ghana	Third round Group D winners	6 September 2009	1 (2006)
Ivory Coast	Third round Group E winners	10 October 2009	1 (2006)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Top goalscorers

There were 505 goals scored in 202 matches, for an average of 2.5 goals per match.

12 goals

• Moumouni Dagano

9 goals

• Samuel Eto'o

8 goals

• Razak Omotoyossi
• Frédéric Kanouté

6 goals

• Didier Drogba
• Dennis Oliech
• Chiukepo Msowoya

5 goals

• Mohamed Aboutrika
• Matthew Amoah
• Ismael Bangoura
• Pascal Feindouno
• Emmanuel Adebayor

Below are full goalscorer lists for each round:

• First round
• Second round
• Third round

References

1. Eritrea withdrew before playing any matches and Ethiopia was suspended by FIFA. They had played four games but the results were not officially recorded.
2. FIFA.com Archived 10 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
3. "Hosts South Africa to play in 2010 World Cup qualifiers". Archived from the original on 31 December 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2007.
4. FIFA World Cup qualifiers get underway in Africa
5. African pair pull out of qualifying race
6. Second place Clarification Archived June 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, FIFA, retrieved 15 June 2008
7. Preliminary Draw Information - Africa Archived 2019-07-09 at the Wayback Machine, FIFA, retrieved 23 November 2007
8. "FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF) 2010, football - table and standings". soccer365.me. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
9. "Malagasy Football Association suspended". FIFA. 19 March 2008. Archived from the original on 23 March 2008. Retrieved 29 March 2008.
10. "Suspension of the Madagascan football association lifted". FIFA. 19 May 2008. Archived from the original on 20 May 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2008.
11. "Ethiopia excluded from the preliminary competition". FIFA. Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2008.
12. "Ethiopian Football Federation suspended". FIFA. 29 July 2008. Archived from the original on 7 August 2008. Retrieved 29 July 2008.
13. "Ethiopia excluded from the preliminary competition". FIFA. 12 September 2008. Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2008.
14. "FIFA suspends Chad soccer federation because of government interference". Yahoo! Sports. 28 March 2008. Retrieved 28 March 2008.
15. "Suspension of the Chad football association lifted". FIFA. 7 May 2008. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 8 May 2008.
16. "Disqualification of Chad National team from ACN 2010". CAF. 3 June 2008. Archived from the original on 20 June 2008. Retrieved 4 June 2008.
17. "Eritrea withdraw from qualifiers". FIFA. 25 March 2008. Archived from the original on 1 April 2008. Retrieved 25 March 2008.
18. "Date Set For World Cup Qualifiers Draw". MTNFootball. 19 September 2008. Archived from the original on 18 October 2008. Retrieved 21 September 2008.
19. African seeds established, FIFA, retrieved 13 October 2008
20. 3rd stage format and draw, FIFA, retrieved 22 October 2008

External links

• African zone at FIFA.com