2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)
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This article documents a current sports-related event. Information may change as the event progresses.

The Asian Football Confederation has been allocated 4.5 qualifying berths for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 43 teams are in the running for these spots; Laos, Brunei and Philippines will not attempt to qualify. This will be the first time Timor-Leste has competed in World Cup qualification and the first time Australia has attempted to qualify for the World Cup as a member of the AFC, having moved from the Oceania Football Confederation at the start of 2006.

Seeding

The initial seeding (used in the draw for the first two rounds) was based on each team's performance during the qualification stage for the previous World Cup.¹ The admission of Australia to the AFC complicated matters slightly (as they had not taken part in the previous AFC qualification cycle, but had progressed to the World Cup finals in Germany - and had advanced further than the AFC qualifiers).

Initially, the AFC placed Australia as the first seed even though this contradicted the letter of the seeding - past practice (such as adopted by the AFC in the draw for the qualification to the 2008 Olympic Football Tournament) would have seeded Australia last.

By the time of the main qualification draw in Durban (which included the AFC third round), the seeding had been adjusted to rank the top 5 AFC nations according to their performance in the World Cup Final Tournament. This resulted in minor changes to the seeding at that point.

Seeding for the first and second rounds

Teams ranked 1–5 get a bye from the first two knockout stages and are entered into the third round group stage.
Teams ranked 6–43 enter at the first round, with teams ranked from 6–24 drawn against teams ranked from 25–43.
Of the first round winners, the eight lowest remaining seeds go on to play the second round. The other teams get a bye to the third round group stage.²

• Guam and Bhutan withdrew after the draw, but before playing any matches.

First round

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - AFC First Round

The official draw took place on 6 August 2007 at the AFC House in Bukit Jalil, Malaysia. Teams from Pot A were randomly paired with a team from Pot B.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	Home leg	Away leg
Pakistan	0–7	Iraq	0–7	0–01
Uzbekistan	11–0	Chinese Taipei	9–0	2–0
Thailand	13–2	Macau	6–1	7–1
Sri Lanka	0–6	Qatar	0–1	0–5
China PR	11–0	Myanmar	7–0	4–04
Bhutan	(w/o)2	Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan	2–2 (5–6p)	Jordan	2–0	0–2 (aet)
Vietnam	0–6	United Arab Emirates	0–1	0–5
Bahrain	4–1	Malaysia	4–1	0–0
Timor-Leste	3–11	Hong Kong	2–35	1–8
Syria	5–1	Afghanistan	3–0	2–11
Yemen	3–2	Maldives	3–0	0–2
Bangladesh	1–6	Tajikistan	1–1	0–5
Mongolia	2–9	Korea DPR	1–4	1–5
Oman	4–0	Nepal	2–0	2–0
Palestine	0–7	Singapore	0–41	0–36
Lebanon	6–3	India	4–1	2–2
Cambodia	1–5	Turkmenistan	0–1	1–4
Guam	(w/o)3	Indonesia

¹ For security reasons, Iraq played their home leg in Syria, Palestine played their home leg in Qatar and Afghanistan played their home leg in Tajikistan.³

² Bhutan withdrew.⁴

³ Guam withdrew.⁵

⁴ FIFA decided to move Myanmar home match to Malaysia.⁶

⁵ Timor-Leste elected to play their home leg in Indonesia.

⁶ Palestine failed to appear; Singapore was awarded a 3–0 win. The Palestine Football Federation appealed to have the match rescheduled on the grounds that its players did not receive permits to leave the Gaza Strip, but FIFA declined the appeal.⁷

Second round

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - AFC Second Round

Of the nineteen teams that progressed from the first round, the eight lowest seeded teams were required to play in the second round (the other eleven teams received a bye to the third round). As with the first round the draw took place on 6 August 2007 at AFC House in Bukit Jalil, Malaysia.

As the teams involved were not known at the time, the draw placed teams ranked 16-19 against teams ranked 12-15. The ties drawn were

• 17th against 14th
• 16th against 12th
• 19th against 15th
• 18th against 13th

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	Home leg	Away leg
Hong Kong	0–3	Turkmenistan	0–0	0–3
Indonesia	1–11	Syria	1–4	0–7
Singapore	3–1	Tajikistan	2–0	1–1
Yemen	1–2	Thailand	1–1	0–1

Third round

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - AFC Third Round

The top 5 seeds were joined by the eleven highest-ranked winners from first round and the four second round winners.

Qualifiers

¹ On 30 October 2007, Kuwait was suspended from international football competitions by FIFA. On 9 November 2007, Kuwait was conditionally reinstated to international football competitions by FIFA.⁸

Seeding for the third round

These 20 teams were drawn into five groups of four teams at the main group draw in Durban on 25 November 2007. The seeding for the main draw was the same for the first two stages, with the exception that the five seeded nations (those that qualified for the 2006 finals) were ordered on the basis of results in the 2006 finals tournament.⁹ This saw Iran move from fifth to third, and Japan and Saudi Arabia ranked equal fourth.

The four seeding Pots used were:

Groups

The teams in each group played each other twice, once home and once away. The teams that finished first and second in their group qualified for the fourth round.

Group 1

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Australia 6 3 1 2 7 3 +4 10  Qatar 6 3 1 2 5 6 −1 10  Iraq 6 2 1 3 4 6 −2 7  China PR 6 1 3 2 3 4 −1 6   Australia  – 0 – 1 1 – 0 3 – 0 China PR  0 – 0 – 1 – 2 0 – 1 Iraq  1 – 0 1 – 1 – 0 – 1 Qatar  1 – 3 0 – 0 2 – 0 – Notes on the tie-breaking situation: Australia and Qatar are ranked by their overall goal difference.

On 26 May 2008, FIFA decided to suspend Iraq from international competition, after the Iraq Football Association was disbanded by the government on 20 May 2008.¹⁰ The suspension was provisionally and conditionally lifted on 29 May 2008.¹¹

Qatar fielded the ineligible player Emerson in the 2–0 defeat of Iraq on 26 March 2008, prompting world governing body FIFA to suspend the player but clear Qatar of any wrongdoing. Iraq appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but it was rejected by the CAS, saying that Iraq submitted documents and the appeal fees too late.

Group 2

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Japan 6 4 1 1 12 3 +9 13  Bahrain 6 3 2 1 7 5 +2 11  Oman 6 2 2 2 5 7 −2 8  Thailand 6 0 1 5 5 14 −9 1   Bahrain  – 1 – 0 1 – 1 1 – 1 Japan  1 – 0 – 3 – 0 4 – 1 Oman  0 – 1 1 – 1 – 2 – 1 Thailand  2 – 3 0 – 3 0 – 1 –

Group 3

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Korea Republic 6 3 3 0 10 3 +7 12  Korea DPR 6 3 3 0 4 0 +4 12  Jordan 6 2 1 3 6 6 0 7  Turkmenistan 6 0 1 5 1 12 −11 1   Jordan  – 0 – 1 0 – 1 2 – 0 Korea DPR  2 – 0 – 0 – 0 1 – 0 Korea Republic  2 – 2 0 – 0 – 4 – 0 Turkmenistan  0 – 2 0 – 0 1 – 3 – Notes on the tie-breaking situation: Korea Republic and Korea DPR are ranked by their overall goal difference.

Group 4

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Saudi Arabia 6 5 0 1 14 5 +9 15  Uzbekistan 6 5 0 1 15 7 +8 15  Singapore 6 2 0 4 7 13 −6 6  Lebanon 6 0 0 6 3 14 −11 0   Lebanon  – 1 – 2 1 – 2 0 – 1 Saudi Arabia  4 – 1 – 2 – 0 4 – 0 Singapore  2 – 0 0 – 2 – 3 – 7