Dakar — Durban hosted on Sunday the draw ceremony for Fifa’s 2010 World Cup, for which a record 204 countries had chosen to participate.
Host South Africa automatically qualifies for the World Cup, the first ever to be hosted by an African nation; however its name still appeared because Sunday’s draw combined the World Cup with the African Cup of Nations of the same year, to be organized by Angola.
For the World Cup, a total of six African countries will be in the final roster, up from four in the last tournament.
No changes were made to the African Cup of Nations, which lines up 16 teams.
Here’s the final listing after Sunday’s draw:
Group 1: Cameroon, Cape Verde, Tanzania, Mauritius;
Group 2: Guinea, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya;
Group 3: Angola (*), Benin, Uganda, Niger;
Group 4: Nigeria, South Africa (**), Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone;
Group 5: Ghana (+), Libya, Gabon, Lesotho;
Group 6: Liberia, Algeria, Senegal, Gambia;
Group 7: Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Botswana, Madagascar;
Group 8: Morocco, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mauritania;
Group 9: Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Burundi, Seychelles;
Group 10: Mali, Congo, Sudan, Chad;
Group 11: Togo, Eritrea, Zambia, Swaziland;
Group 12: Egypt (++), DR Congo, Malawi, Djibouti.
(*) Angola is automatically qualified for the 2010 African cup of nations as host
(**) South Africa is automatically qualified for the 2010 World Cup as host
(+) Ghana will host the upcoming 2008 African Cup of Nations
(++) Egypt won the last African Cup of Nations