2014 Fifa World Cup Qualification (AFC, CAF, Concacaf) Wiki Info

The 2014 Fifa World Cup will be the 20th FIFA World Cup, a global football tournament that is scheduled to take place between June and July 2014 in Brazil. The 2014 FIFA World Cup will attribute 32 teams. Among 32 one place has been owed to the hosts, Brazil and lingering 31 places will be determined by a qualification process, in which candidate from among the other 207 teams from the six FIFA confederations will compete.

Through Fifa World Cup Qualification process, a national association football team goes to Fifa World Cup Finals. Qualification is required to decrease the large field of participants from about 200 to 32 as The FIFA World Cup is a worldwide event.

Within the six FIFA continental zones (Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, Oceania, North and Central America and Caribbean), Qualifying tournaments are seized, and are organized by their respective confederations. FIFA decides in advance the number of spots awarded to each of the continental zones, for each tournament, based on the numbers and/or relative strength of the confederations teams. 2010 Fifa World Cup Qualification began in 2007 and ended in late 2009.

In order to permit the confederations to begin their qualifying competitions in good time, The Executive Committee decided to endorse the change of date for the preliminary draw of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which will be held six months prior than in the past. The draw will be held on 31 July 2011 in Brazil, yet location is not determined.

Qualification for AFC:

Initially it was declared that the AFC Competitions Committee has decided to use the present qualification format for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The AFC (Asian Football Confederation) announced a format for the qualifiers on 13 August 2010, which was the same to the 2010 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers. The winners from Round One will move to the second round which will also have a home-and-away format on July 23, 2011, and July 28, 2011.

Including the winners of the second round the twenty teams, will be separated into five groups of four teams each. The winners and runners-up from each group will advance to the fourth round after playing in a home-and-away format.

In the fourth round, ten teams will be divided into two groups of five and top two teams from each group will qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. From Round 4, third-best teams will play home-and-away in Round 5 and the winner will qualify for a Round 6 final tournament against a team from another continent to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.

Qualification for CAF:

In the final tournament in Brazil, The Confederation of African Football section of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification sees teams competing for berths.

In addition to the hosts, South Africa, in the 2010 tournament CAF had five qualifiers for the finals tournament. The number of qualifiers will be announced prior to the main qualifying draw for the 2014 tournament, scheduled to take place in Brazil on 31 July 2011.

Qualification for CONCACAF:

The CONCACAF (The Confederation of North, Central American, and Caribbean Association Football) Executive Committee declared a proposed change in its qualifying format for the 2014 World Cup, in May 2010, which would start with a first round knockout stage followed by three group phases.

    * First round to dapper the number of teams to 32.
    * 8 groups of 4 teams. Top two in each group through to the next round.
    * 4 groups of 4 teams. Top two in each group through to the next round.
    * 2 groups of 4 teams. The winners of the groups will qualify directly to the World Cup, if CONCACAF will have 3.5 spots. While the second placed teams will play-off against each other first, then against a team from another confederation and in November 2013, the winner will play against the sixth representative from AFC.

The top two teams in each group will qualify to the World Cup, if CONCACAF gets 4 spots as they hope.