Qualification
Qualifying started in August 2007 and continued until November 2009. In total, including hosts South Africa, 32 teams qualified for the tournament. Holders Italy were required to qualify too - and they did, being one of Europe's 13 Qualifiers.
Africa
Including the hosts, 6 African nations qualified. They are:
South Africa
Cameroon
Nigeria
Algeria
Ghana
Ivory Coast
Asia
Asia had a chance for 5 qualifiers, 4 directly from the Asian qualifying process and a 5th from a play off with the Oceania Group. In the event, just four teams qualified:
Australia
Japan
North Korea
South Korea
Europe
Europe has the largest number of qualifiers - 13:
Denmark
Switzerland
Slovakia
Germany
Spain
England
Serbia
Italy
Netherlands
(infamously) France
Portugal
Slovenia
Greece
North, Central America & Caribbean
3 teams would qualify direct from the qualifying pool with a potential of a fourth from a play off with the South American qualifying group. In the event, just the three teams qualified (Costa Rica lost out to Uruguay):
USA
Mexico
Honduras
South America
From South America, 5 teams qualified:
Brazil
Chile
Paraguay
Argentina
Uruguay (play off versus Costa Rica)
Oceania
New Zealand won the Oceania qualifying group and then still had to play off with Bahrain in order to quaify, which they duly did.
