The scene for the preliminary draw to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa ended in true African fashion yesterday. The mouth-watering draw, which created 12 groups of four countries for the African continent, saw The Gambia Scorpions paired in Group 6, along the arch-rivals Senegal, Algeria and Liberia.

The winners of each round-robin mini-league plus the best eight runners-up will qualify for third round. The World Cup qualifying fixtures will also double as qualifiers for the 2010 African Nations Cup finals, which is scheduled to take place in Angola.

Despite being paired in a relatively tough group, the Gambia will still face familiar faces during the qualifier fixtures which will commence in early 2008.

Scorpions last attempt to qualify for their first-ever FIFA World Cup finals dates back to 2003, when their inability to beat Senegal in their both meetings, cost them the bitter elimination.

The teams are chasing 31 places at the World Cup finals, with only hosts South Africa guaranteed a spot at the tournament in 30 months' time.  There will be 861 qualifying matches to determine the line-up for the finals, lasting more than 800 days and finishing in November 2009.

Read subsequent edition for reactions on Gambia’s group.