Six African Nations for World Cup 2010

The dates for the 2010 Football World Cup have been set for 11 June to 11 July, and the allocation of places will be the same as for 2006, meaning that with South Africa granted an automatic berth as the host country - Africa will have one extra team at the tournament.

In a statement issued on Wednesday following a two-day meeting in Zurich, Fifa's executive committee said that 32 teams would contest the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Thirteen of these will be from Europe, five from Asia and Oceania, eight from South America and the Concacaf region (North and Central America and the Caribbean), and five from Africa, plus the automatic spot granted to South Africa.

This effectively gives Africa six teams at 2010 - and Europe one less than in 2006.

Of the eight places for South America and the Concacaf region, four are guaranteed to South American countries and three to Concacaf countries. The eighth spot will be decided by a play-off between the fifth-placed South American country in the 2010 qualifiers and the fourth-placed Concacaf country.

A similar play-off between the Oceania champion and Asia's fifth-best team will decide who takes the fifth berth for Asia and Oceania.

Fifa said the preliminary draw for 2010 would be held in Durban on 23 November 2007, and that the Fifa Confederations Cup South Africa 2009 would take place in the five venues of Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg (Ellis Park), Pretoria and Rustenburg from 14 to 27 June.

The Fifa Confederations Cup is contested by the winners of each of the six Fifa confederation championships - ie the reigning African, Asian, European, Oceanian, South American and Concacaf champions - along with the Fifa World Cup champion and the host country, to bring the number of teams up to eight.

Fifa said it had "listened with satisfaction" to a report on the status of South Africa's preparations for 2010, and "underlined its support for the local organising committee.

"However, the executive committee stated that it was now expecting work to begin, particularly on constructing and renovating the stadiums."

Plans for the construction of four stadiums and upgrading of six others in South Africa's nine 2010 host cities has been completed, and their funding secured, and construction work is due to begin early in 2007.

2010 Confidence on the Increase

Overall public confidence in South Africa's readiness to host the 2010 Fifa World Cup has improved slightly since 2006, with a study by market research company African Response finding that 70% of South Africans believe the country will be ready then.

African Response director Anina Maree says this is an encouraging sign, explaining that their 2010 barometer was designed to track public perceptions, and to allow organisers and other stakeholders to address public concerns. "A heart-warming result from the 2010 African Response barometer is that the majority of respondents (85%) believe that South Africa will benefit from the South Africa 2010 World Cup," African Response says in a statement this week.

"In addition, almost four out of five respondents believe that the World Cup is important to them personally."

The survey interviewed 1 200 respondents from Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria over April, May and June this year. The survey shows that the residents of Johannesburg as being significantly more optimistic in the country's ability to host the World Cup, with a 76% confidence level, as opposed to residents of Cape Town, with only 60%.

Seventy percent of those interviewed believe that South African airports will be while 59% have faith that public transport will be sufficient to carry soccer fans around the country during the tournament.

An overwhelming 85% also believed that South Africa's many restaurants would be ready to cope with the increased demands of hosting the World Cup. "Bafana Bafana have apparently made a good impression on the South African public in the last three months, as confidence in our local team has risen from 44% in 2006 to 52% in 2007," African Response adds.

The survey also points to more South Africans preferring to watch World Cup matches on television, with only 54% wanting to watch matches live, down from 61% in 2006. "Although overall levels of confidence are high, some areas for improvement have been highlighted from the survey," African Response says.

The survey shows that there has been a notable decline in the confidence that South Africa will be able to meet electricity demands during the World Cup, with confidence being lowest in Cape Town, which has had many power disruptions. Confidence is South Africa's security and policing has declined from 62% in 2006 to 55% currently, while residents' optimism on sufficient accommodation being available during the tournament also dropped to 77% from 84% in 2006.

The survey also finds that over half of the respondents feel that they are not receiving enough information on the progress made on World Cup preparations. "While overall confidence is up, there are obvious areas which South Africans believe could be improved on," says Maree.

"However, as 2010 nears, and developments become visible to the public these scores are sure to rise as excitement builds."

History of the FIFA World Cup

No other sporting event captures the world's imagination like the FIFA World Cup. Ever since the first tentative competition in Uruguay in 1930, FIFA's flagship has constantly grown in popularity and prestige.

A group of visionary French football administrators, led in the 1920s by the innovative Jules Rimet, are credited with the original idea of bringing the world's strongest national football teams together to compete for the title of World Champions. The original gold trophy bore Jules Rimet's name and was contested three times in the 1930s, before the Second World War put a 12-year stop to the competition.

When it resumed, the FIFA World Cup rapidly advanced to its undisputed status as the greatest single sporting event of the modern world. Held since 1958 alternately in Europe and the Americas, the World Cup broke new ground with the Executive Committee's decision in May 1996 to select Korea and Japan as co-hosts for the 2002 edition.

Since 1930, the 16 tournaments have seen only seven different winners. However, the FIFA World Cup has also been punctuated by dramatic upsets that have helped create footballing history - the United States defeating England in 1950, North Korea's defeat of Italy in 1966, Cameroon's emergence in the 1980s and their opening match defeat of the Argentinean cup-holders in 1990....

Today, the FIFA World Cup™ holds the entire global public under its spell. An accumulated audience of over 37 billion people watched the France 98 tournament, including approximately 1.3 billion for the final alone, while over 2.7 million people flocked to watch the 64 matches in the French stadia.

After all these years and so many changes, however, the main focus of the FIFA World Cup remains the same - the glistening golden trophy, which is the embodiment of every football player's ambition.

Source from; fifa.com/