The qualifying system for the World Cup has been tweaked ahead of the 2010 competition. 53 European countries will be separated into 8 groups of 6 and 1 group of 5 in order to make up the 13 Euro places for the tournament. Group winners will automatically qualify for the event scheduled to take place in South Africa whilst 8 more will enter a round of playoffs.

The previous format had European teams in groups of seven or 8 meaning an increased number of games for each nation. The system also differs from the Euro 2008 qualification criteria where the top 2 teams in each group progress without playoffs.