Welcome

Hi and welcome to The Road to Brazil 2014. This blog will provide information and analysis during qualifying for the 2014 edition of the FIFA World Cup. You may or may not know this, but qualifying is already underway.

204 teams have entered qualification, all competing for 31 spots. Brazil has already qualified as the host nation. We will breakdown each confederations qualifying process and which nations are the favorites to progress to the finals. We will also try to illuminate the earlier rounds of qualifying where the minnows have their chance to shine.

There are six confederations in FIFA and they each have a certain allocation of places at the World Cup.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC): 4 or 5 places

The Confederation of African Football (CAF): 5 places

The Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF): 3 or 4 places

The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL): 4 or 5 places (not including Brazil)

Oceania (OFC): 0 or 1 places

Union of European Football Association (UEFA): 13 places

The fifth placed AFC team will play-off against the winner of OFC qualifying for a spot while the fifth placed team in CONMEBOL will play-off against the fourth placed team in CONCACAF. The playoffs will be two legs, home and away.

So welcome to the blog up first we will take a look at the AFC qualification process, which began at the end of June. Expect that post in the next couple of days.