2010 World Cup dates and number of teams set

We can all begin to clear our calendars for 2010 as FIFA has set the dates for the World Cup. It will run from June 11 to July 11. FIFA has also granted South Africa an automatic berth as the host nation.

As nice as it is to know the dates, the most interesting piece of information to come out of FIFA is the number of teams each confederation will send to the finals. Africa will get six, European thirteen, Asian and Oceania five, and a total of eight for South America and the Central American region.

This represents a few chances. The first is Europe loses a spot while Africa gains one. With the success of European teams at this past World Cup, I'm a little surprised by this.

The other change has to do with playoff teams. In '02 and '06 there were playoffs between CONCACAF/Asia and South America/Oceania. That has now changed to a CONCACAF/South America and Asia/Oceania playoff. This change makes a lot more sense to me.

So it looks like CONCACAF will still have 3.5 spots to the World Cup. After the way our teams performed in Germany, I thought we would lose the .5 spot. I then figured Asia would lose their .5, thus giving Africa the extra team. The fact that FIFA pulled the spot from Europe says something. I'm not sure what, but I think it might have to do with growing the sport in all areas of the world. Whatever it is, I'm sure many Europeans are not happy about it.