Bulgarian national football team landed a tough qualification group for the 2010 World Cup finals to be held in South Africa, Dnevnik daily reported.

The November 25 draw in Durban, South Africa placed Bulgaria in Europe's Group 8 along with current world champion Italy, the Republic of Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia and Montenegro.

Two-hundred countries altogether would determine the 32 finalists for the 2010 World Cup with, host South Africa being the only one to qualify directly. The remaining 199 countries would have to go through the qualification rounds per continent, Dnevnik daily said. The campaign would last 800 days and finish in November 2009.

In the European qualification zone, 53 teams would compete for 13 places at the 2010 World Cup. The teams were distributed in 9 groups (8 groups of 6 teams and 1 group of 5). The 9 group winners would qualify directly for the 2010 World Cup finals and the best 8 of the 9 second-placed would go through play-offs for the remaining 4 places.

In the meantime it became clear that president of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFS) Borislav Mihailov, who attended the Durban draw, would try to find in South Africa rivals for the Bulgarian team for 3 friendly matches in Spring 2008, Dnevnik daily said.

After his return from Durban Mihailov would meet Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev. The main topic would be the construction of a base for the Bulgarian national team.