2010 FIFA World Cup
There is just over a year to go before the biggest sporting event in the world. That, of course, is the FIFA World Cup, the prestigious soccer event that takes place once every four years.
South Africa will host the 2010 World Cup, which will take place 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 will conclude exactly one month later on July 11. Johannesburg, the country’s largest city, will host the championship match at Soccer City Stadium, which is currently undergoing refurbishment 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 32-team field, but the other 31 places are still up for grabs. Qualifying matches began in August 2007 and will end in November 2009. The draw ceremony to place the 32 finalists into groups will take place in December 2009.
Right now, various ranking tournaments are taking place around the world. World Cup hopefuls are competing for 13 places among European nations, five places for African teams (plus South Africa), four or five for South America, three or four for North America, Central America and the Caribbean, and no or one place for Oceania.
In Asia, Australia and Korea Republic currently lead the way in their respective qualifying groups. In Europe, Denmark, Greece, Slovakia, Germany, Spain, England, Serbia, Italy and the Netherlands top the groups. Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Chile currently look good in South America. Qualifying matches in the Africa and North/Central America & Caribbean divisions have yet to start.
Once qualifying is complete and the stage is set for the December 2009 draw ceremony in Cape Town, the 32 World Cup participants will be drawn into eight groups of four teams. Each team in a group plays every other team in their group and the top two teams (16 in total) advance to the knockout stage, which will take place between June 26, 2009 and June 29.
The round-robin pool play will take place June 11-25.
In the first round of the knockout phase, the eight group winners face the second eight in the group. From there, the rest of the tournament is single-elimination. The losers of the semifinals, however, will meet in a third-place match on July 10 in Port Elizabeth.
Italy are the defending champions, having defeated France 5-3 on penalties in the 2006 title match. Brazil, which last won World Cups in 1994 and 2002, owns the most Cup titles of the World with five. Italy has four and Germany, the 2006 host nation, has three. Italy currently sits third in the FIFA rankings, while Brazil is fifth and Germany is second. Spain is the highest ranked team, while the Netherlands is the other team in the Top 5. All five countries should be serious contenders in South Africa.