Cape Town — The stage was set for 30 months of exciting football on Sunday when Africa's nations learned who their teams have to beat to get to the 2010 World Cup finals.
In a two-hour ceremony, broadcast live from Durban's International Convention Centre, iconic figures from the soccer world conducted the preliminary draw for the tournament, allocating national teams to their qualifying pools.
The draw for Africa served a dual purpose: it also assigned teams to their groups for the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in 2010.
Some of the highlights of the draw:
- In a development that drew an excited response from the audience at the convention centre, South Africa and Nigeria were placed in the same group. (However, South Africa, as the World Cup host, is guaranteed a place in those finals even if it does not advance out of the group.)
- Cameroon was in a group with Cape Verde, Tanzania and Mauritius.
- Algeria and Senegal will play in the same group.
- Egypt is in a group which also comprises the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Djibouti.
The full draw:
Group 1: Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Tanzania, Mauritius
Group 2: Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Guinea
Group 3: Niger, Uganda, Benin, Angola
Group 4: Nigeria, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone
Group 5: Lesotho, Gabon, Libya, Ghana
Group 6: Gambia, Liberia, Algeria, Senegal
Group 7: Madagascar, Botswana, Côte d'Ivoire, Mozambique
Group 8: Mauritania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Morocco
Group 9: Seychelles, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Tunisia
Group 10: Chad, Sudan, Mali, Congo-Brazzaville
Group 11: Swaziland, Zambia, Togo, Eritrea
Group 12: Djibouti, Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt
