Football: 2010 World Cup and CAN qualifiers-Withdrawals push The Pirates into group stage |08 September 2007

Paired against Djibouti in their first match of the preliminary African qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup which have been combined with the preliminaries for the African Nations Cup finals earlier the same year, The Pirates have benefited from the withdrawal from the competition of two lower-ranked countries, namely Central African Republic and Sao Tomé & Principe.

Ranked 45th in Africa, The Pirates, along with Swaziland (44th), will thus not be involved in the preliminary round qualifiers, therefore necessitating a change in the draw.

Somalia, who had been drawn against Swaziland in the original draw, will now play Djibouti on November 17 in a one-leg encounter.

The other two preliminary round qualifiers are as follows: Sierra Leone v Guinea Bissau and Comoros v Madagascar. Those two matches will be played on a home-and-away basis on October 13 and November 17.

The three winners of the preliminary round qualifiers will join the other top 45 teams in Africa in the first group phase, where the teams will be divided into 12 groups of four teams each at the World Cup draw in Durban on Sunday November 25.

They will play six rounds of matches through 2008 with the 12 group winners plus eight best runners-up progressing to the last league stage.

The 20 remaining teams are to be divided into a final stage of five groups of four, with the resultant group winners going on to the World Cup in South Africa and the top three in each group qualifying for the 2010 Nations Cup finals in Angola.

It is worth noting that South Africa are the first World Cup hosts in more than 70 years to participate in its own qualifying competition, although they will play in the finals regardless of their performance.

Should South Africa finish top of their group, the runners-up will qualify for the 2010 World Cup.
Africa will have six teams at the World Cup finals for the first time.

G. G.