Date

08 JUN 2009, 09:30 AM

Next year’s world cup in South Africa drawing is closer with the action heating up to which teams will be qualifying. There will be 32 participating nations, with the obvious host nation South Africa already in the draw, they will be joined by five African nations, 13 countries from Europe, four from South America, four from Asia and three from CONCACAF. Within the Asian and CONCACAF regions, there will be playoffs involved with neighbouring regions that feature Oceania and Asia, and CCONCACAF and South America.

Europe

Europe has nine teams qualifying with the action really heating up with which teams making the cut. Of the teams qualifying, Holland has already made it through to South Africa, with the usual football countries like England, Portugal, Spain Italy, Germany and France to be certain qualifiers. It will be now eyes on the remaining spots where nations like Croatia, Ukraine, Russia, Romania to fight it out.

Asia

Australia and Japan have already sealed their world cup spots, so with two more teams to qualify, teams like Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China and Iran will be jostling for the final positions.

CONCACAF

This is the group that contains, North, Central American and Caribbean countries. At the top of the group stands Costa Rica and the USA so they look set for a good finish.

South America

South America is a heated battle, with many top quality teams countries having to qualify for four spots. The ladder currently sits with Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Argentina booking their tickets to South Africa. The fifth plays team plays off against the CONCACAF region for a final spot, this spot is a dog fight between Uruguay, Ecuador, Venezuela hoping for the second chance.

Africa

The teams that have shown good form in their third round qualification process have included Gabon, Tunisia, Algeria, Zambia, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso.

The action is really firing up so keep your eyes on who will make the World Cup 2010.