So far 6 teams have qualified for 2010 World Cup that didn’t qualify in 2006:
Denmark (16)
Chile (21)
Honduras (42)
Slovakia (45)
South Africa* (73)
Korea DPR (90)
And the following are teams who won’t be back in 2010:
Croatia (9)
Czech Republic (18)
Ecuador (36)
Sweden (41)
Iran (60)
Trinidad and Tobago (63)
Saudi Arabia (65)
Togo (71)
Angola (92)
FIFA rankings in brackets.
When do they have the draw for the Euro playoffs? Is it a seeded or random draw? I think random would be more fair and interesting.
Why all the hate?
Maradona is a disaster of a DT and of a person. In the news conference after the match against Uruguay he told the journalist “now you can all suck me”
19 October.
FIFA decided all of three weeks ago to seed the draw. France, Portugal, Russia, and Greece are in one pot while Ukraine, Ireland, Bosnia, and Slovenia go in the other one. Having determined the participants for each playoff, there will then be another draw to decide which team plays the second leg at home.
The games take place on 14 and 18 November.
I’m not sure when the draw will be, but the games are on 14 and 18 november, so it must be pretty soon. Also, there is a seeding system based on the fifa rankings. There will be two pots:
pot 1
Portugal
Russia
Greece
France
pot 2
Ireland
Slovenia (yay!)
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Ukraine
So it’s pretty much geared up to send the big names through, eventhough Greece could struggle against all of them. There also some discontent over the seeding, as it was anounced just a couple of weeks ago and not something that was clear at the beginning of the qualifying campaign. It should be noted though that they used the same seeding system (appearantly) for the WC in 2006, so it’s not like they are doing something unpresidented.
edit: Or, what Chez Guevara said 
OK the draw for the European playoffs is made:
Ireland vs France
Greece vs Ukraine
Portugal vs Bosnia
Russia vs Slovenia
The first team will start at home on november 14 with the second game on november 18.
I say France, Ukraine, Bosnia (must be some shock right :)) and Russia (although I hope for a Slovenian upset)
When I reviewed the European standings and games, I didn’t see any clear “favorites” out of those groups. Ireland have a good record (no losses) but on strong defense; they don’t seem to score very often. Maybe we’ll see how they do on penalty kicks.
So my picks are:
Ireland
Ukraine
Portugal (poor Bosnia got one of the toughest early groups and now have a tough playoff)
Russia (I want Slovenia to prove me wrong)
France
Greece
Portugal
Slovenia
Just to be different. 
The other playoffs still going on:
Bahrain against New Zealand (played to a 0 - 0 result in Bahrain)
Uruguay against Costa Rica (home and home the 14th and the 18th; haven’t seen who gets the first home game)
Nice call.
To summarize:
**
In:**
France
Slovenia
Greece
Portugal
Algeria
Cameroon
Nigeria
New Zealand
Out:
Russia
Ukraine
Ireland
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Egypt
Gabon
Tunisia
Bahrain
I think that just leaves a result from Uruguay at Costa Rica to determine the final spot, unless I’ve missed something.
And Uruguay is now in.
What was the score?
Uruguay 1 - 1 Costa Rica (2 - 1 on agg.)
BLATANT handling by Theirry Henry. Ireland must be feeling quite shell-shocked after having played much the better game today. But when you concede one at home, you cannot be to shocked at going out in the away game unless you can poke two past the other side.
Slovenia past Russia is awesome. That will teach Hiddink to be a bit more humble, I hope.
Greece making it in is not so great. Usually a fairly negative team in their play. But the Ukraine didn’t score in Athens, so they were at the mercy of the away goal…
Gotta feel a bit sorry for Costa Rica. That last American goal really hurt them!
Oh, and congrats to Algeria!!!