The African continent has a total of 54 countries fighting each other to take make it to the allotted 6 places of 32 in the 2010 finals. 1 of the 6 places has already been awarded rather easily to South Africa by virtue of them being the host nation. The remaining 53 countries will go through three qualifying rounds at the end of which only 5 nations will get a ticket to the finals.
The third qualifying rounds in progress as of now, and only 20 countries remain from the total of 53. These 20 teams are divided into 5 groups, and the topper of each group gets a ticket to play in the 2010 finals.10 teams will play from the Oceania leg for a possible place in the finals. After two rounds of qualifying games, New Zealand have emerged winners of the Oceania leg and will play against the winner of 5th ranked team from the Asia leg, for a place in the finals.
From the Asia leg, a total 43 teams have been fighting for 4 rounds for 5 possible places in the 2010 finals. The top 2 finishers from group 1 and group 2, Australia, Japan, Korea Republic and Korea DPR respectively have already booked their berth in the 2010 finals. The 3rd ranked team from both the groups, namely Bahrain and Saudi Arabia will play each other over two legs, and the winner will play against New Zealand for a place in the 2010 finals.
