2010 FIFA World Cup

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2010 FIFA World Cup - South Africa FIFA World Cup - South Africa 2010
Official logo, unveiled on 7 July 2006
Host	South Africa

The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the 19th FIFA World Cup, an international tournament for football, that is scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa. It will be the first time that the tournament has been held on the African continent, leaving Oceania as the only populated continent never to have hosted the event.

1 Host selection
2 Teams
3 Venues
4 Preparations
5 Rumours of tournament being moved
6 Controversies
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Host selection

Main article: FIFA World Cup hosts

Africa was chosen as the host for the 2010 World Cup as part of a new policy to rotate the event between football confederations. Five African nations placed bids to host the 2010 World Cup:

Egypt
Libya (to co-host with Tunisia)
Morocco
South Africa
Tunisia (to co-host with Libya)

Following the decision of the FIFA Executive Committee not to allow co-hosted tournaments, Tunisia withdrew from the bidding process. The committee also decided not to consider Libya's solo bid as it no longer met all the stipulations laid down in the official List of Requirements.

After one round of voting, the winning bid was announced by FIFA president Sepp Blatter at a media conference on May 15, 2004 in Zurich. South Africa was awarded the rights to host the tournament, defeating Morocco and Egypt.^[1]

Results:

South Africa, 14 votes
Morocco, 10 votes
Egypt, 0 votes
~~Tunisia~~ withdrew on May 8, 2004 after joint bidding was not allowed
~~Libya~~ was not considered: bid did not meet the list of requirements

[edit] Teams

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

All Confederations have yet to start the qualification process for the 2010 World Cup. As the host nation, South Africa qualifies automatically. The preliminary draw for the 2010 World Cup will be held in Durban, South Africa on November 23, 2007.

[edit] Europe (UEFA)

(13 berths)

The European qualification games will start in September 2008, and the group drawing will take place in the beginning of that year.

[edit] South America (CONMEBOL)

(4.5 berths. Play-off against North, Central American and the Caribbean)

The CONMEBOL qualification process will again feature a league system (home and away matches) for a single group of 10 associations. The provisional start date is September or October 2007.^[2]

[edit] North, Central American and the Caribbean (CONCACAF)

(3.5 berths. Playoff against South America)

The CONCACAF qualification process is not yet known.

[edit] Asia (AFC)

(4.5 berths. Oceania champion to be included in the final stage of qualifying)

The AFC qualification process is not yet known.

[edit] Africa (CAF)

(6 berths, including South Africa as host)

The CAF qualification process will begin on either 13 October or 14 October 2007, again (as was in 2006) in conjunction with the African Cup of Nations.

[edit] Oceania (OFC)

(0.5 berths. One team is included in the final round of Asian qualification)

The winner of the 2008 OFC Nations Cup will be included in the final round of Asian qualification.^[3]

[edit] Venues

In 2005, the organizers released a provisional list of thirteen venues to be used for the World Cup: Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg (two), Kimberley, Nelspruit, Orkney, Polokwane, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria (two), and Rustenburg. This was narrowed down to ten venues (The World Cup Stadiums for 2010 can also be viewed in Google Earth[1]),^[4] which was officially announced on 17 March 2006 by FIFA:

City	Stadium	Capacity
Johannesburg	Soccer City (to be upgraded)	94,700
Durban	King Senzangakhona Stadium (to be built)	70,000
Cape Town	The Greenpoint Stadium (to be built)	68,000
Johannesburg	Ellis Park Stadium (to be upgraded)	60,000
Pretoria	Loftus Versfeld Stadium(to be upgraded)	50,000
Port Elizabeth	Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium (to be built)	50,000
Polokwane	Peter Mokaba Stadium (to be built)	45,000
Bloemfontein	Free State Stadium (to be upgraded)	40,000
Rustenburg	Royal Bafokeng Stadium	40,000
Nelspruit	Mbombela Stadium (to be built)	40,000

[edit] Preparations

Five new stadiums are to be built for the tournament (three match venues and two practice grounds), and five of the existing venues are to be upgraded. Construction costs are expected to be R8.4bn.^[5]

In addition to the stadia being built and upgraded, South Africa is also planning to improve its current public transport infrastructure, and implement special measures to ensure the safety and security of local and international tourists attending the matches in accordance with standard FIFA requirements.^[6]

[edit] Rumours of tournament being moved

On July 12, 2006 The Guardian relayed reports by the German news agency SID that FIFA executives were concerned about the pace of South Africa's preparations and would consider moving the tournament to the United States or re-stage it in Germany if preparations fell behind.^[7] Rumours were also circulated that the event may be moved to Australia.^[8] Franz Beckenbauer (chairman of Germany's successful bid to organize the 2006 FIFA World Cup) and Horst R. Schmidt (general secretary of the German Football Association), have publically acknowledged their concerns regarding the planning and political will of South Africa to host the event.^[9] FIFA officials have consistently denied having any contingency plans to move the tournament, with president Sepp Blatter re-iterating that "Plan A... Plan B... Plan C is that the 2010 World Cup will be staged in South Africa".^[10]

[edit] Controversies

Various NGOs and poor people's movements have expressed major concern about the eviction of shack dwellers in the run up to the 2010 World Cup. Concerns are particularly accute in Durban where local politicians have promised to 'clear the slums by 2010'.[2] It has also been argued strongly from similar quarters that it is inappropriate to invest so much public money on stadia when so much of the population lacks basic services and housing. [3]