2010 World Cup Qualifying

In Round One, all 53 PMAs will contest Round One. The round consists of 8, round robin, home-and-away groups of 6 teams as well as 1 round robin, home- and-away group of 5 teams. The 8 best group runners-up advance to Round Two. The group winners qualify for the FIFA World Cup The 8 best Round One group runners-up will contest Round Two. The teams will be paired into 4 home-and-away series. The winners qualify for the FIFA World Cup.

The 5 best teams of Germany 2006 got a free pass into the third round and the remaining 38 PMAs contested Stage One. The teams were paired into 19 home-and-away series. The 8 lowest-ranked winners seeded 12 to 19 contested Stage Two. The Stage two winners advance to Stage Three. In Stage Three, the 11 top-ranged Stage One winners (via byes) and the 4 Stage Two winners will join the 5 remaining, top-ranked PMAs in Stage Three. The Third Stage consists of 5 round-robin, home and away groups of four. In Stage Four, the 5 Stage Four group winners and the 5 Stage Three group runners-up will contest this round. In Stage Five, the 3rd places teams from the two Stage Four groups will contest Stage Five and the team will play one home-and-away play-off series.

Twelve teams are contesting Round 3 of North, Central America and Caribbean qualifying. The top two from each of the three groups will advance to the final hexagonal stage, from where three sides will qualify directly for South Africa 2010 and the fourth-placed team will take on the fifth-placed finisher in South American qualifying for a place at the world finals.

The qualification format, which involves a league system with teams playing each other home and away, kicked off in October 2007. The top four go through by right, with the side finishing fifth going into a play-off with the fourth-placed side from the North, Central America and Caribbean Zone.

In Round One the 10 lowest ranked PMAs (as per the FIFA ranking of July 2007) contested Round One. The teams were paired into 5 home-and-away series. The winners of each series advance to Round Two. In Round Two the 3 Round One series winners will then join the 45 remaining PMAs (incl. South Africa) in Round Two. The 48 teams will then be grouped into 12 round-robin, home-and-away groups of 4 teams. The group winners and 8 best runners-up will advance to Round Three. In Round Three, the 12 Round Two group winners and 8 best Round Two group runners-up will contest Round Three. The 12 Round Two group winners and 8 best Round Two group runners-up will contest Round Three. South Africa to participate in the FIFA World Cup as host.

The best four classifying teams on the South Pacific Games are meassured with New Zeland on the Nations Cup to determine who awaits for the repechage with the fifth Asian classifyer.