The European Zone of the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification will see 53 teams competing for 13 places. The qualification process started on 20 August 2008, after UEFA Euro 2008. The qualification process also marks the first official competition for Montenegro.

Seeding

After initially proposing to use a similar system to recent World Cup and European Championship qualification (based on results across the previous two European qualification cycles), the UEFA Executive Committee decided on 27 September, 2007 at its meeting in Istanbul that seeding for the qualifiers would be based on FIFA World Rankings, in accordance with the FIFA World Cup regulations (which note that where teams are ranked on "performance" criteria, the FIFA World Rankings must be used).

The FIFA World Ranking used for seeding was the most recent at the time of the preliminary draw, namely the November 2007 edition. Initially scheduled for 21 November, the release date was moved to 23 November to include the final match days of Euro 2008 qualification.

Pot A	Pot B	Pot C	Pot D	Pot E	Pot F

Format

Eight groups of six teams and one group of five will contest the European qualifying competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The nine group-winners will qualify directly, while the highest ranked eight of the nine second-placed teams will contest home and away play-off matches for the remaining four places. In determining the rank of second-placed teams, the results against teams finishing last in the six-team groups will not be counted for consistency between the five- and six-team groups.

Tiebreakers

Groups

The draw for the group stage took place in Durban, South Africa on November 25 2007 (17:00 local time). During the draw, teams were drawn from the 6 pots A-F (see above) into the 9 groups below, starting with pot F, which filled position 6 in the groups, then continued with pot E filling position 5, pot D in position 4 and so on.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

Group 7

Group 8

Group 9

Ranking of second-placed teams

The play-offs will be contested by the best placed runners up. With one group having one less side than the others, matches against the sixth-placed team in the group are not included in this ranking.

Team	Grp	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
	3	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3	7	ab
	6	3	2	1	0	4	1	+3	7	ab
	7	3	2	0	1	5	3	+2	6	ab
	1	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	5	ab
	2	2	1	1	0	5	3	+2	4	ab
	5	2	1	1	0	3	1	+2	4	ab
	9	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4	a
	4	2	1	0	1	2	2	0	3	ab
	8	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	ab

Matches against the sixth-placed team in the group are not included in this ranking.

Key to notes

• a - Team is not guaranteed second place in their group
• b - Sixth-placed team in group may change (so ranking of second-placed team may improve or worsen even if they do not play)

Ranking rules

1. Points obtained
2. Goal difference
3. Total goals scored
4. Goals scored in away matches

All of these are based on matches against the teams finishing first to fifth in the group. In the event that the division of teams into a top-eight and bottom-one cannot be achieved using the above tiebreakers, a play-off will be held between affected teams.

Goalscorers

As of 11 October 2008.4 goals

• Wesley Sonck
• David Villa 3 goals
• Edin Džeko
• Zvjezdan Misimović
• Wayne Rooney
• Theo Walcott
• Miroslav Klose
• Lukas Podolski
• Angelos Charisteas
• Theofanis Gekas
• Sergei Ostapenko
• Milivoje Novakovič
• Blaise Kufo2 goals
• Søren Larsen
• Joe Cole
• Eidur Gudjohnsen
• Yossi Benayoun
• Omer Golan
• Daniele De Rossi
• Antonio Di Natale
• Tomas Danilevičius
• Steffen Iversen
• Nani
• Branislav Ivanović
• Nikola Žigić
• Serhiy Nazarenko
• Andriy Shevchenko1 goal
• Erjon Bogdani
• Armend Dallku
• Klodian Duro
• Marc Pujol
• René Aufhauser
• Andreas Ivanschitz
• Marc Janko
• Martin Stranzl
• Vyacheslav Hleb
• Vitali Rodionov
• Dmitry Verkhovtsov
• Steven Defour
• Marouane Fellaini
• Senijad Ibričić
• Zlatan Muslimović
• Stiliyan Petrov
• Blagoy Georgiev
• Niko Kovač
• Mario Mandžukić
• Luka Modrić
• Mladen Petrić
• Efstathios Aloneftis

1 goal, cont.

• Michalis Konstantinou
• Martin Fenin
• Daniel Agger
• Nicklas Bendtner
• Daniel Jensen
• Christian Poulsen
• Jermaine Defoe
• Rio Ferdinand
• Andres Oper
• Sergei Zenjov
• Bogi Løkin
• Mikael Forssell
• Jonatan Johansson
• Daniel Sjölund
• Mika Väyrynen
• Nicolas Anelka
• Yoann Gourcuff
• Sidney Govou
• Thierry Henry
• Franck Ribéry
• Levan Kenia
• Levan Kobiashvili
• Michael Ballack
• Thomas Hitzlsperger
• Simon Rolfes
• Bastian Schweinsteiger
• Heiko Westermann
• Kostas Katsouranis
• Vasilis Torosidis
• Roland Juhász
• Gergely Rudolf
• Sándor Torghelle
• Heiðar Helguson
• Kevin Doyle
• Glenn Whelan
• Klemi Saban
• Ben Sahar
• Salim Tuama
• Zhambyl Kukeev
• Roman Uzdenov
• Vitālijs Astafjevs
• Deniss Ivanovs
• Ģirts Karlsons
• Mindaugas Kalonas
• Saulius Mikoliūnas
• Marius Stankevičius
• Alphonse Leweck
• René Peters
• Jeff Strasser
• Ilčo Naumoski
• Goran Pandev
• Serghei Alexeev
• Igor Picusceac
• Stevan Jovetić
• Mirko Vučinić

1 goal, cont.

• John Heitinga
• Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
• Joris Mathijsen
• Rafael van der Vaart
• Jakub Błaszczykowski
• Paweł Brożek
• Robert Lewandowski
• Euzebiusz Smolarek
• Michał Żewłakow
• Hugo Almeida
• Deco
• Simão Sabrosa
• Răzvan Cociş
• Dorin Goian
• Florentin Petre
• Andrei Arshavin
• Roman Pavlyuchenko
• Pavel Pogrebnyak
• Andy Selva
• Kirk Broadfoot
• Barry Robson
• Miloš Krasić
• Marek Hamšík
• Martin Jakubko
• Miroslav Karhan
• Ján Kozák
• Stanislav Šesták
• Martin Škrtel
• Zlatko Dedič
• Zlatan Ljubijankič
• Joan Capdevila
• Juanito
• Carles Puyol
• Marcos Senna
• Samuel Holmén
• Kim Källström
• Alexander Frei
• Hakan Yakin
• Emre Belözoğlu
• Mevlüt Erdinç
• Tuncay Şanlı
• Semih Şentürk
• Arda Turan
• David Edwards
• Ched Evans
• Joe Ledley
• Sam VokesOwn goals
• Jón Rói Jacobsen (for Serbia)
• Roman Uzdenov (for England)
• Brian Said (for Portugal)
• Ján Ďurica (for Northern Ireland)

References

External links

• European Zone at FIFA.com