If you have examined the current list of World Cup qualifiers you will notice a massive imbalance in the teams who have booked their place so far.

As host nations, the South Africans are in and are currently the only African entrants. They will be joined by Holland, the sole European qualifier at the moment. In Asia though, it is a very different story as four nations have guaranteed their spot with the chance for another to get through if they can progress past the play-off stage.

Then if they can win a play-off final against a team from another continent they’ll be in too. Australia and Japan are the entrants from Asian Group A and North and South Korea progressed through Asian Group B. So many teams are still looking to guarantee their participation in the finals. Will early qualification be a help or a hindrance to these teams? It certainly allows them to plan ahead and start pulling their tactics together in time for the major event.

There is a school of thought, however, that it is better to play competitive matches as opposed to friendly matches and light-hearted games all the time. Some European sides who are qualifying all the way up until November may rather have it that way. They should then be careful not to overlook the qualification process for the 2011 Asian Cup, being held in Qatar in January 2011.

The qualified nations from Asia may not have competitive World Cup qualifying games to concern themselves with, but there are outstanding fixtures to be played in November, January and March in the year ahead. This will see Japan playing four competitive matches from now until the build up to the World Cup truly begins.

Hong Kong, Bahrain and Yemen will not be the sort of opponents that they will be facing in South Africa next summer – they will be facing teams desperate for a good result against their more illustrious opponents.

Japan have already suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Bahrain in this campaign so they will not be able to afford many more dropped points if they fancy playing in their continents premier football event.

There is a slight problem for some of the major teams in that they may rest some of their big stars or allow the foreign based players time off. With the World Cup looming and the importance of these events growing, the likelihood of full strength squads being ordered to travel is definitely on the rise.

This is a warning that has been issued by the Australian coach, who after trying to rely on local based players, has seen his squad start poorly. This means a SOS call to the more established players based in Europe to hopefully guarantee Australia’s participation in Qatar.

Therefore, the knowledge of being guaranteed a place at the 2010 World Cup should be a weight off the mind for teams like Japan and Australia but there is no reason to suggest that their squad will be able to take it easy at any time in the build up to next summer’s major event.