The UEFA second round was contested by the best eight runners-up from the nine first round groups from the UEFA segment of the qualification tournament for the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

in football. The winners of each of four home and away ties joined the group winners in the World Cup in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. The matches, which are often referred to as 'play-offs', were played on 14 and 18 November 2009. The draw for the ties was held in

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich () i ...

on 19 October, with the teams drawn by South African player Steven Pienaar.

Qualification

The eight best runners-up from the UEFA First Round qualified for the play-offs. With one group having one team fewer than the others, matches against the sixth-placed team in the group are not included in this ranking.

Seeding and draw

In September 2009, FIFA announced that they would be seeding teams for the play-off draw. The eight eventual qualifiers were seeded according to the

world rankings A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of o ...

released on 16 October 2009. The top four teams were placed into one pot, with the bottom four teams placed into a second. A separate draw was conducted between each matchup to decide the host of the first leg.

Seeding controversy

Seeding using FIFA ranks was used at a similar stage in the 2006 qualification. However, it was claimed that FIFA had indicated that there would be no seeding this time. At the time of the decision, countries in play-off positions included

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

, and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

also had not yet qualified (their last remaining match was away to

). The lack of a decision on seeding until late in the tournament led some to suggest that FIFA were waiting to see which teams were in the play-offs before declaring the rules of the tournament. Commenting on this matter,

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

goalkeeper

Shay Given Séamus John James Given (born 20 April 1976) is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. With 134 caps, he is the second-highest capped Republic of Ireland player. Given started his career at Celtic, however he nev ...

said: :''It’s totally unfair on us smaller nations. If they say that before a ball is kicked then at least you know the picture, you know exactly where you stand but to change it now is absolutely ridiculous and I don’t think it’s right at all.'' ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice ...

'''s Gabriele Marcotti gave the opinion that "FIFA is pretty much changing the rules halfway through the qualifying tournament.''

Seedings

The eight teams were seeded according to the

FIFA World Rankings The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, led by Brazil national football team, Brazil . The teams of the List of men's national football teams, men's member nations of FIFA, football's w ...

released on 16 October (shown in parentheses in the table below).

Matches

''France won 2–1 on aggregate.''
Ireland officially asked FIFA for the second leg to be replayed after

Thierry Henry Thierry Daniel Henry (born 17 August 1977) is a French professional football coach, pundit, and former player who is an assistant coach for the Belgium national team. Considered one of the best strikers of all time and one of the best player ...

clearly handled the ball twice during the build-up to the French goal. This request was denied. Ireland eventually pursued legal action against FIFA over the decision before ultimately receiving a €5 million settlement. ---- ''Portugal won 2–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Greece won 1–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''2–2 on aggregate; Slovenia won on away goals.''
After the game Russian fans followed the Republic of Ireland's lead. They demanded a replay of their World Cup qualification play-off against Slovenia on the official site of FIFA.Now Russia try call for play-off replay over ref blunders and 'knife attack'
/ref> However, there was not any reaction from FIFA on this event.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:World Cup

Play-offs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

2009 in Republic of Ireland association football 2009 in Russian football

2009–10 in Bosnia and Herzegovina football 2009–10 in Ukrainian football

November 2009 sports events