The numbers after each team show the global ranking of that team according to the latest computer calculations done by FIFA, the governing body of international soccer.
Each team will play six games—home-and-away matches against the other three teams in its group—between September 2, 2010, and February 29, 2012.
The top two teams in each group will advance to the next round. Those 10 teams will be divided into two groups that will hold a playoff June 3 to June 8, 2012.
The top two teams in each group will then go to the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil.
The two third-place teams will play each other, with the winner then facing a pair of home-and-away games against the fifth-place team from Latin America. The winner of that pairing will go to the World Cup finals. Thus, Asia will have either four or five teams among the 32 teams in the finals.
Group A
China (73) Jordan (91 Iraq (109) Singapore (131)
Group B
S. Korea (28) Kuwait (95) UAE (109) Lebanon (159)
Group C
Japan (16) Uzbek. (83) Syria (104) N. Korea (115)
Group D
Australia (23) S. Arabia (92) Oman (107) Thailand (119)
Group E
Iran (54) Qatar (90) Bahrain (100) Indonesia (137)
This drawing was held Saturday in Rio de Janeiro by FIFA along with drawings for the other continental groups. There are 206 national teams in FIFA. Preliminaries have weeded them down to the 166 nations in Saturday’s draw. The remaining eliminations will prune them down to 32 teams in the finals. It will take a total of 824 matches to decided who those final 32 are.
Saturday’s draw was held on the 91st anniversary of the day that Uruguay won the very first World Cup.