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Soccer World Cup - South Africa 2010

World Cup Expansion

During the first World Cup tournaments there were some difficulties regarding travel, rules and war. For the nation teams located outside the continent of the host nations; it was almost impossible to get to the destination due to the high costs involved and the large distances.

Different from the following World Cups the first one was held without qualification rounds. With only a small number of participants it was decided to change the plans regarding the designated knockout competition. Therefore; the teams were divided into four groups to achieve as much geographical range as possible.

For the following World Cup in 1934 which took place in Italy; there were 32 teams fighting in the qualification rounds for the entry in the finals. The 16 remaining teams then played in a knockout competition. The 1938 games in France were overshadowed by World War II; only 15 nations were contesting.
The 1942 and 1946 editions were cancelled due to the War. The British home nations, were football was first played, entered the World Cup for the first time in 1950 after reaching an agreement with FIFA about their status.

For the tournaments which were played between 1934 and 1978; 16 teams took part in the final tournament (except in a few cases that teams withdrew after qualifying). Most of the qualifiers were from Europe and America, with a very small minority from Africa, Asia and Oceania. These teams were usually easily defeated by the European and American teams (with the notable exception of North Korea in 1966, which reached the quarterfinals).

In 1982 the final tournament was expanded to 24 teams and later to 32 teams in 1998, allowing more teams from Africa, Asia and North America to participate. Recently, these comparatively newer participants have enjoyed more success for example: Cameroon in 1990; South Korea, Senegal and USA in 2002. Today the World Cup is a truly global event, with more than 197 nations entering qualification rounds.

For the 2006 World Cup the Silver Goal was abolished leaving only the Golden Goal. Also, 1994 was the first World Cup where the overtime lasted two rounds of 15 minutes each.

Qualification Tournaments

These tournaments are held within the six FIFA continental zones (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and the Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Europe), and are organized by their respective confederations.

For each tournament, FIFA decides the number of spots awarded to each of the continental zones beforehand, based on the relative strength of the confederations' teams (and, some may argue, political considerations). The host of each World Cup enters automatically in the finals. Until 2002, the defending champions also received an automatic berth, but starting in 2006 they needed to enter the qualifying tournament as well as every other team.

The qualification process can start as early as almost three years before the final tournament and lasts over a two-year period. The formats of the qualification tournaments differ between confederations. Usually, one or two spots are awarded to winners of the Intercontinental Play-offs. For example, the winner of the Oceania zone and the fifth-placed team from the South American zone entered a play-off to decide which team would qualify for the next World Cup.

A record of 204 nations will attempt to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The qualifying competition for this World Cup will also count as the qualifying match for the African-Cup in 2010.

For the 2010 World Cup FIFA decided the following numbers of spots to each continental zone:

UEFA (Europe) 13 berths
CAF (Africa) 5 berths, plus the host South Africa
AFC (Asia) 4 berths
OFC (Oceania) the winner of the OFC will play against the fifth berth from AFC, the winner will qualify for the World Cup
CONMEBOL (South America) 4 berths
CONCACAF (North and Central America and Caribbean) 3 berths
the fifth berth of the CONMEBOL will play against the fourth berth of the CONCACAF for another place

Final tournament

The final tournament involves 32 national teams competing over a 4-week period. Few years ago, FIFA stated that in future final tournaments will be hosted by a single nation. In the past, the host country and current world champions automatically qualified for the next World Cup, but since 2006 only the hosts will get an automatic berth.

The final tournament is divided into two stages, a group stage and a knockout stage. For the first round, teams are drawn into eight groups of four. During the draw, eight teams are seeded, with one being drawn into each group, while the other teams are allocated into pots based on geographical considerations and then drawn into each group.

In each group, a round-robin tournament is played, with each team playing three matches. The last round of matches of each group is held at the same time to guarantee fairness. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage.

In the knockout stage, teams play each other in one-off matches, with extra time and penalty shootouts used to decide the winner, if necessary. This is followed by the quarterfinals, the semifinals and the final.

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