2010 FIFA World Cup qualification the finals, with CONCACAF's fourth-place team facing CONMEBOL's fifth-placed team, and AFC's fifth-placed team facing the winner of the OFC. As the host nation, South Africa qualified automatically. As in 2006, the current cup holders – Italy – did not qualify automatically. For FIFA World Cup qualifying stages the method used for separating teams level on points is the same for all Confederations, as decided by FIFA itself. If teams were even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams would be ranked by: This is a change from 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification, where results between
2002 FIFA World Cup an increase from 22 previously. Of the 23 players, 3 must be goalkeepers. The eight seeded teams for the 2002 tournament were announced on 28 November 2001. The seeds comprised Pot A in the draw. Pot B contained the remaining 11 European sides; Pot C contained five unseeded qualifiers from CONMEBOL and AFC. Pot D contained unseeded sides from the CONCACAF region and Africa. This was the last FIFA World Cup with the defending champion in Group A. Since 2006, the Host nation has been in Group A. Before the draw, it was arranged that the last three teams in