Competition format
Saturday 23 June 2007-
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Italy's Fabio Cannavaro lifts the FIFA World Cup in 2006 (©Getty Images)
Eight groups of six teams and one group of five will contest the European qualifying competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The UEFA Executive Committee made the decision at its two-day meeting in Heerenveen, Netherlands which concluded on 23 June 2007.
As a result the nine group winners will qualify directly, while the best eight second-placed teams will be involved in home and away play-off matches for the remaining four places. "It's a good compromise solution, because I wasn't really happy with the format for the last qualifying competition with groups of seven and eight teams," said UEFA President Michel Platini. Europe has 13 places available for the 32-team tournament in South Africa.
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