2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

The European zone of qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup saw 53 teams competing for 13 places at the finals. The qualification process started on 20 August 2008, over a month after the end of UEFA Euro 2008, and ended on 18 November 2009. The qualification process saw the first competitive matches of Montenegro.

Teams were drawn into eight groups of six teams and one group of five teams. The nine group winners qualified directly, while the best eight second-placed teams contested home and away play-off matches for the remaining four places. In determining the best eight second-placed teams, the results against teams finishing last in the six-team groups were not counted for consistency between the five- and six-team groups.

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 of the ranking was moved to 23 November to include the final match days of Euro 2008 qualification.

The countries which eventually qualified for the final tournament are emboldened in the table below.

 Italy
 Spain
 Germany
 Czech Republic
 France
 Portugal
 Netherlands
 Croatia
 Greece

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Wikipedia