FIFA WORLD CUP 2010

2010 World Cup" redirects here. For other competitions of this name, see 2010 World Cup (disambiguation).
For the video game based on this competition, see 2010 FIFA World Cup (video game).
2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010

2010 FIFA World Cup official logo
Tournament details
Host country South Africa
Dates 11 June – 11 July
Teams 32 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s) 10 (in 9 host cities)
← 20062014 →
The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the 19th FIFA World Cup, the premier international football tournament. It is scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa. The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the culmination of a qualification process that began in August 2007 and involved 204 of the 208 FIFA national teams. As such, it matches the 2008 Summer Olympics as the sports event with the most competing nations.

This will be the first time that the tournament has been hosted by an African nation, after South Africa beat Morocco and Egypt in an all-African bidding process. This decision left the Oceania Football Confederation as the only confederation yet to host the FIFA World Cup. Italy are the defending champions. The draw for the finals took place on 4 December 2009 in Cape Town.

Contents [hide]
1 Host selection
2 Qualification
2.1 List of qualified teams
2.2 Qualification controversies
3 Prize money and club payments
4 Mascot
5 Match ball
6 Venues
7 Preparations
7.1 Construction strike
8 Relocation rumours
9 Controversies
10 Final Draw
11 Referees
12 Matches
12.1 Group stage
12.1.1 Tie-breaking criteria
12.1.2 Group A
12.1.3 Group B
12.1.4 Group C
12.1.5 Group D
12.1.6 Group E
12.1.7 Group F
12.1.8 Group G
12.1.9 Group H
12.2 Knockout stage
12.2.1 Round of 16
12.2.2 Quarter-finals
12.2.3 Semi-finals
12.2.4 Third place play-off
12.2.5 Final
13 In video games
14 See also
15 References
16 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 (which was later abandoned in October 2007). Five African nations placed bids to host the 2010 World Cup:

Egypt
Libya / Tunisia (co-hosting)
Morocco
South Africa
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 15 May 2004 in Zürich. South Africa was awarded the rights to host the tournament, defeating Morocco and Egypt.[1]

Voting Results
Country Votes
South Africa 14
Morocco 10
Egypt 0

Tunisia withdrew on 8 May 2004 after joint bidding was not allowed
Libya bid was rejected: bid did not meet the list of requirements and joint bidding was not allowed
[edit] Qualification
Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification
As the host nation, South Africa qualifies automatically for the tournament. However, South Africa did participate in World Cup qualifiers because the CAF qualifiers also serve as the qualifying tournament for the 2010 African Cup of Nations. They were the first host since 1934 to participate in preliminary qualifying. As happened in the previous tournament, the defending champions were not given an automatic berth, and Italy had to participate in qualification.

The qualification draw for the 2010 World Cup was held in Durban, South Africa, on 25 November 2007.

[edit] List of qualified teams
The following 32 teams qualified for the final tournament.

AFC (4)
Australia
Japan
Korea DPR
Korea Republic
CAF (5+1)
Algeria
Cameroon
Côte d'Ivoire
Ghana
Nigeria
South Africa (hosts)
CONCACAF (3)
Honduras
Mexico
United States
CONMEBOL (5)
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Paraguay
Uruguay
OFC (1)
New Zealand
UEFA (13)
Denmark
England
France
Germany
Greece
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Switzerland

Qualified countries in green

This is the first World Cup with no debutant associations, although two of the qualifiers (Slovakia and Serbia) have previously appeared only as parts of former competing nations. In both cases FIFA considers these teams to have retained the earlier nations' records.

[edit] Qualification controversies
Controversy surrounded several of the final qualification matches in November 2009.

Wikinews has related news: Ireland requests replay of FIFA World Cup play-off with France
Wikinews has related news: FIFA to make changes after Thierry Henry handball
In the second leg of the play-off between France and the Republic of Ireland French captain Thierry Henry, unseen by the referee, illegally handled the ball in the lead up to the winning goal, which saw France make the final 32 teams ahead of Ireland. The incident caused widespread debate on FIFA Fair Play, and how matches should be refereed at the highest level. The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) requested a replay on grounds of fairness, but this was denied by FIFA under the Laws of the Game.[2] A widely reported later request by Ireland to be included as an unprecedented 33rd World Cup entrant was later withdrawn by the FAI, and dismissed by the FAI as peripheral to their other more substantial petitions for change in world football made to FIFA. [3] [4]

Costa Rica also complained over Uruguay's winning goal in the CONMEBOL–CONCACAF playoff.[5]

There was crowd trouble around two matches between Egypt and Algeria, with the Algerian team bus stoned before the first in Cairo, and reports of Egyptian fans ambushed after the second in Khartoum, Sudan. Local media made lurid reports, and diplomatic relations between the countries nosedived.

In response to the incidents during qualification, and to a match fixing controversy, on 2 December 2009 FIFA called for an extraordinary general meeting of their Executive Committee. After the meeting, FIFA announced that they would be setting up an inquiry into technology and extra officials in the game, but they did not announce the widely-expected move of fast-tracking the introduction of goal-line referee's assistants, already being trialled in the Europa League, and instead restated that the competition in South Africa would be officiated as before, with just one referee, two assistants, and a fourth official.[6] On the subject of fair Play, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said:

I appeal to all the players and coaches to observe this fair play. In 2010 we want to prove that football is more than just kicking a ball but has social and cultural value...So we ask the players 'please observe fair play' so they will be an example to the rest of the world[7]

[edit] Prize money and club payments
The total prize money on offer for the tournament was confirmed by FIFA as $420 million, a 60 per cent increase on the 2006 tournament.[8] Before the tournament, each participating team would receive $1 million, for preparation costs. Once at the tournament, teams exiting at the group stage would receive $8 million. Thereafter, the prize money would be distributed as follows:[8]

$9 million - Round of 16
$18 million - Quarter-finals
$20 million - Semi-finals
$24 million - Runners up
$30 million - Winners
In a first for the World Cup, there would also be payments made by FIFA to the domestic clubs of the players representing their national teams at the tournament. This would see a total of €26 million being paid to domestic clubs, amounting to just over €1,000 per player per day. [9]

This was the result of an agreement reached in 2008 between FIFA and European clubs to disband the G-14 and drop their claims for compensation dating back to 2005 over the financial cost of injuries sustained to their players while on international duty, such as that from Belgian club Charleroi S.C. for injury to Morroco's Abdelmajid Oulmers in a friendly game in 2004, and from English club Newcastle United for an injury to England's Michael Owen in the 2006 World Cup.[10][11][12]