Europe
(41 teams competing for 4 or 5 berths, host nation Germany also qualifies)
Forty-one teams from Europe were drawn into eight groups on 17 March 2009. These groups were played between August 2009 and August 2010. The group winners advanced to four home-and-away play-offs (held in September 2010), with the winners advancing to the World Cup finals. The four losing teams competed in repechage play-offs the following month to determine a team to play against the third-placed CONCACAF team for the 16th place in the finals.
Unlike previous qualification tournaments, all UEFA member nations were eligible to qualify. In the past, only those nations in the top tier of European nations played in qualification groups.
Read more about this topic: 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Qualification
Famous quotes containing the word europe:
“The confrontation between America and Europe reveals not so much a rapprochement as a distortion, an unbridgeable rift. There isn’t just a gap between us, but a whole chasm of modernity.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really seem to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
“For it does not follow because many books are written by persons born in America that there exists an American literature. Books which imitate or represent the thoughts and life of Europe do not constitute an American literature. Before such can exist, an original idea must animate this nation and fresh currents of life must call into life fresh thoughts along its shores.”
—Margaret Fuller (1810–1850)