Road to the 2010 World Cup

South Africa 2010 World Cup Chief Executive Danny Jordaan has promised a highly successful FIFA World Cup in when South Africa hosts Africa’s first ever World Cup.Since South Africa won the historic bid to host the World Cup, there have been various criticism aimed at the continents alleged inability to stage the competition.

But Jordaan, who led South Africa’s successful bid has poured cold water on the concerns, assuring that the tournament would be the most successful World Cup ever organized.Speaking at a press conference in Accra during his visit for the Ghana 2008 draw, the 2010 World Cup chief said South Africa was aiming to make the World Cup highly successful both on and off the pitch.

“There have been doubts that Africa cannot organize a successful World Cup but I want to assure that we are capable of organizing a highly successful World Cup and we will deliver,” Jordaan said.

He revealed that the tournament had already achieved commercial success as its commercial revenue had exceeded the previous World Cup hosted by Germany, making it the highest ever in the history of the World Cup“We want to organize a successful tournament both on and off the pitch and we are working very hard to achieve this target.”Jordaan added that it was also the vision of South Africa 2010 World Cup to use the tournament to erode the notion that Africa is a hopeless continent.

“We want to use the World Cup to change the perception of Africa as a hopeless continent. This is very important because the World Cup is an African World Cup.”

Abedi: African teams must excel at 2010 World Cup

Ghana legend Abedi ‘Pele’ Ayew says it is extremely important for African countries who will take part in the first ever World Cup on the continent to excel and even go on to win the trophy to continue the tradition of host continents hosting and winning.Abedi, who is also an ambassador for the South Africa 2010 World Cup, said the World Cup in South Africa should be the time for Africa football to make a stronger impression on world football.“The history of the World Cup shows that only twice have continents hosting the World Cup failed to win and this is an important history Africa should continue.

Fifa World Cup 2010

South Africawill be the host for the 2010 World Cup, which will be staged in a variety of South African cities including Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban, and Bloemfontein. The tournament will begin on June 11, 2010 and conclude exactly one month later on July 11. Johannesburg, the country's largest city, will host the championship match in Soccer City Stadium, which is currently undergoing renovations to be new and improved in time for the World Cup.

Although the big event is still 18 months away, a long and grueling qualification process has already begun. South Africa automatically qualifies for the field of 32 teams, but the 31 other spots are still up for grabs. Qualifying matches began in August of 2007 and will finish in November of 2009. The draw ceremony to place the 32 finalists in groups will be held in December of 2009.

At the moment, various qualifying tournaments are taking place around the world. World Cup hopefuls are vying for 13 spots among European nations, five spots for African teams (in addition to South Africa), four or five for South America, three or four for North America, Central America, and Caribbean, and either no spots or one for Oceania.

In Asia, Australia and the Korea Republic are currently leading the way in their respective qualification groups. In Europe, Denmark, Greece, Slovakia, Germany, Spain, England, Serbia, Italy, and the Netherlands are atop the groups. Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile are currently looking good in South America. Qualifying matches in Africa and the North /Central America and Caribbean divisions have yet to commence.

Once qualifying concludes and sets the stage for the December 2009 draw ceremony in Cape Town, the 32 World Cup participants will be placed into eight groups of four teams. Each team in a group plays every other team in its group and the top two teams (16 total) advance to the knockout stage, which will take place between June 26, 2009 and June 29.

Round-robin group play will be held from June 11 to June 25.In the first round of the knockout stage, the eight group winners play the eight group runner-ups. From there, the remainder of the tournament is single elimination. The losers of the semifinals, however, will square off in a third-place match held on July 10 in Port Elizabeth.

Italy is the defending champion, having defeated France 5-3 in penalty kicks in the 2006 title match. Brazil, which won World Cups most recently in 1994 and 2002, owns the most World Cup titles with five. Italy has four and Germany, the 2006 host nation, has three. Italy is currently third in the FIFA rankings, while Brazil is fifth and Germany is second. Spain is the top-ranked team, while the Netherlands is the other team in the Top 5. All five countries should be serious contenders in South Africa.

The FIFA World Cup is Close

Held every four years, the FIFA World Cup is probably one the most renown and popular sports tournaments in the world. The soccer tournament takes place in one or two countries over a four week period in which thirty-two teams compete against each other to claim the title of world champions. The most recent world cup was held in Germany in 2006, in which Italy were proclaimed as the winners after defeating France in a penalty shoot-out.

Origins of the World Cup: The first World Cup tournament was held in Uruguay in 1930. The first tournament was difficult to establish because of the location. The organizers struggled to attract European nations to send teams to South America to contest the tournament. Eventually, the tournament took place with thirteen teams involved; nine from the Americas and four from Europe. The first final was contested between the hosts and Argentina, with Uruguay winning 4-2.

The early competitions were troubled by the difficulties of transportation and frequent interruptions caused by war. Many countries refused to participate, as it would involve playing soccer matches against teams that either they did not recognize or had been in conflict with in the recent past. After World War Two many of these problems were removed and FIFA was able to organize credible and professional tournaments much easily.

The Modern World Cup: The World Cup is essentially organized in two distinct parts; the qualification stage and the finals. The qualification stage takes place over a two year period and runs concurrently with each nation's domestic soccer season. Teams are divided into regions: Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, Oceania and the North American and Caribbean regions.
Within these regions the countries are drawn into groups and will play each other home and away. The exact qualification method differs from region to region, but usually the top team in each group qualifies for the World Cup Finals and the runner-up competes in a play-off for the last remaining qualifying positions.

The World Cup Finals themselves are held in a different country on each occasion. Sometimes, FIFA has selected two countries in the same vicinity to host the tournament; for example, South Korea and Japan hosted in 2002.

The finals are contested between thirty-two nations divided into eight groups. They play each other once and the top two teams qualify for the knock out stages. There follows three further rounds that are decided by one match. If the match is level, the game will be decided on penalties.

Past Winners of the World Cup: Brazil is the most successful team in the history of the World Cup, having won the tournament a record five times. Italy's recent victory in 2006 has brought them close to equaling the record with four successes. Remarkably, the World Cup has only been won by seven different countries over the eighteen tournaments so far. Germany, Uruguay, Argentina, France and England complete the list.

The Future of the World Cup: The next World Cup will be held in the South Africa in 2010. This will be the first time that the tournament will be held on the African continent.
After a series of promising performances by Cameroon, Senegal and Nigeria in recent tournaments, many soccer experts are predicting that one of these nations may be able to win the Word Cup next time.