Who will upheld the honour of the host continent Africa?

The Africa qualification started with a preliminary round to decide 48 progressing teams. As hosts of the FIFA World Cup 2010 South Africa qualified automatically, but they still had to take part of the process, as it also decided the teams that will play in the African Cup of Nations 2010 in Angola.

After the preliminary round 12 groups with four teams were drawn, with the group winners and 8 best runners-up advancing to the next group stage. The second group stage saw 20 teams split to 5 groups of 4. The group winners qualified for the FIFA World Cup finals. These teams were Cameroon, Nigeria, who edged out Tunisia by only a single point, Ghana and Ivory Coast. Group C saw Egypt and Algeria finish with exactly the same points and goal difference, so the two nations were forced into a winner takes all match on neutral ground in Sudan, to decide the final team, who'd pass through to the FIFA World Cup finals 2010. Algeria won the match 1:0 to mark the nations 3rd ever World Cyup finals place and the first since 1986.