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FIFA WORLD CUP 2010 (South Africa)

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. Italy are the defending champions. The draw for the finals took place on 4 December 2009 in Cape Town.

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.
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

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

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.[9] 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:
$9 million - Round of 16
$18 million - Quarter-finals
$20 million - Semi-finals
$24 million - Runners up
$30 million - Winners

[edit] Match ball
Main article: Adidas Jabulani
MATCH BALL
Jabulani, the official match ball of the 2010 FIFA World Cup
The match ball for the 2010 FIFA World Cup will be named the "Jabulani", made by addidas, which means "bringing joy to everyone" in isiZulu. The number eleven plays a prominent role in the new technologically advanced ball: it is the eleventh World Cup match ball made by the German sports equipment maker; it features eleven colours, one for each player on the pitch; and there are eleven official languages of South Africa. Also, the event will start on the eleventh day of June and end on the eleventh day of July.