The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the 19th FIFA World Cup, an international tournament for football, that is scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa. It will be the first time that the tournament has been hosted by a nation in the Confederation of African Football, leaving the Oceania Football Confederation as the only FIFA Confederation never to have hosted the event.
Africa was chosen as the host for the 2010 World Cup as part of a new policy to rotate the event between football confederations (This policy was later abandoned in October 2007). Five African nations placed bids to host the 2010 World Cup:
# Flag of Egypt Egypt
# Flag of Libya Libya / Flag of Tunisia Tunisia (co-hosting)
# Flag of Morocco Morocco
# Flag of South Africa 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 Zurich. South Africa was awarded the rights to host the tournament, defeating Morocco and Egypt.
Results:
1. Flag of South Africa South Africa, 14 votes
2. Flag of Morocco Morocco, 10 votes
3. Flag of Egypt Egypt, 0 votes
Flag of Tunisia Tunisia withdrew on 8 May 2004 after joint bidding was not allowed
Flag of Libya Libya bid was rejected: bid did not meet the list of requirements and joint bidding was not allowed.
As the host nation, South Africa qualifies automatically. However, South Africa is the first host since 1934 to participate in World Cup qualifiers. This is because the CAF qualifiers will also serve as the qualifying tournament for the 2010 African Cup of Nations, for which South Africa must qualify separately. Since 2002 the defending champions no longer qualify automatically.
The preliminary draw for the 2010 World Cup was held in Durban, South Africa on 25 November 2007.
Venues:
In 2005, the organizers released a provisional list of thirteen venues to be used for the World Cup: Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg (two), Kimberley, Nelspruit, Orkney, Polokwane, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria (two), and Rustenburg. This was narrowed down to ten venues which were officially announced on 17 March 2006 by FIFA.
Johannesburg Soccer City (being upgraded) 95,000
Cape Town Green Point Stadium (being constructed at site of Metropolitan Golf Course) 70,000
Durban Moses Mabidha Stadium (being constructed at site of demolished Kings Park Soccer Stadium) 70,000
Johannesburg Ellis Park Stadium (being upgraded) 61,000
Pretoria Loftus Versfeld Stadium (being upgraded) 50,000
Port Elizabeth Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium (under construction) 48,000
Bloemfontein Free State Stadium (being upgraded) 48,000
Nelspruit Mbombela Stadium (under construction) 46,000
Polokwane Peter Mokaba Stadium (being constructed adjacent to existing Peter Mokaba Stadium) 45,000
Rustenburg Royal Bafokeng Stadium (being upgraded) 42,000
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