Anyone know why South Africa is in WC Qualifying?

[fhmesq44]

Strange. Host nation is an auto bid. Is this a sign that they won't be hosting the cup?

 

[jambolaya1]

May be they are filling a spot..Plus it would be suicide for any nation to sit out international matches just because they get the auto bid. A team doing this would get blasted badly in the world cup itself. Remember soccer national teams are made up of mostly individuals who dont play together as a team mostly. So it is very very important for a team to practice by playing together against other nations.

 

[Jack Herer]

There's a little confusion here. FIFA changed rules a few years back. It used to be that the host and defending champion were automatically in the World Cup. Now the defending champion has to qualify.

South Africa played today cause its also a qualifier for the Africa Cup of Nations. But they do have a spot in World Cup 2010.

 

[MrCleo]

South Africa are participating in the preliminaries because they also serve to determine the finalists for the 2010 African Nations Cup tournament.

 

[EricTheMidget]

Also to add, their Coach was very adamant on qualifying helping them improve by a vast amount.