South Africa will be the host for the 2010 FIFA World Cup the prestigious soccer event that takes place once every four years, and it's the biggest sporting event in the world.
South Africa will 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.
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