When will the European World Cup qualifiers start?

The European qualifiers will start in August 2008. The 53 participating teams in Europe are divided into 9 groups, of which each group has 6 teams except 5 teams in one group. Each group will play the home and away double round robin respectively, and the top teams in each group will directly advance to the 20 10 World Cup in South Africa. The eight runner-up teams with the best record in the nine groups will be divided into four pairs for home and away elimination, resulting in another four teams.

The results of the European group draw are as follows:

1 Group: Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania, Malta;

Group II: Greece, Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia, Luxembourg;

Group III: Czech Republic, Poland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia and San Marino;

Group 4: Germany, Russia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein;

Group V: Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Armenia, Estonia;

Group VI: Croatia, England, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra;

Group 7: France, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria and Faroe Islands;

Group VIII: Italy, Bulgaria, Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia and Montenegro;

Group 9: Netherlands, Scotland, Norway, Macedonia and Iceland.