The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. The bidding process for hosting the tournament finals was open only to African nations; in 2004, the international football federation, FIFA, selected South Africa over Egypt and Morocco to become the first African nation to host the finals.
The matches were played in ten stadiums in nine host cities around the country, with the final played at the Soccer City stadium in South Africa's largest city, Johannesburg. Thirty-two teams were selected for participation via a worldwide qualification tournament that began in August 2007. In the first round of the tournament finals, the teams competed in round-robin groups of four teams for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These sixteen teams advanced to the knockout stage, where three rounds of play decided which teams would participate in the final.
n the final, Spain, the European champions, defeated third-time finalists the Netherlands 1–0 after extra time, with Andrés Iniesta's goal in the 116th minute giving Spain their first world title, the first time that a European nation has won the tournament outside its home continent. Host nation South Africa, 2006 world champions Italy and 2006 runners-up France were eliminated in the first round of the tournament.
Official song
Main article: FIFA World Cup official songs
The official song of the 2010 World Cup "Waka Waka" was performed by the Colombian singer Shakira and the band Freshlyground from South Africa, and is sung in both English and Spanish. The song is based on a traditional African soldiers' song, Zangalewa. Shakira and Freshlyground performed the song at the pre-tournament concert in Soweto on 10 June. It was also sung at the opening ceremony on 11 June and at the closing ceremony on 11 July.
Africa was chosen as the host for the 2010 World Cup as part of a short-lived policy, abandoned in 2007, to rotate the event among football confederations. Five African nations placed bids to host the 2010 World Cup: Egypt, Morocco, South Africa and a joint bid from Libya and Tunisia.
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.
he qualification draw for the 2010 World Cup was held in Durban on 25 November 2007. As the host nation, South Africa qualified automatically for the tournament. As happened in the previous tournament, the defending champions were not given an automatic berth, and Italy had to participate in qualification. With a pool of entrants comprising 204 of the 208 FIFA national teams at the time, the 2010 World Cup shares with the 2008 Summer Olympics the record for most competing nations in a sporting event.
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Some controversies took place during the qualifications. In the second leg of the play-off between France and the Republic of Ireland, French captain Thierry Henry, unseen by the referee, handled the ball in the lead up to a late goal, which enabled France to qualify ahead of Ireland, sparking widespread controversy and debate. FIFA rejected a request from the Football Association of Ireland to replay the match, and Ireland later withdrew a request to be included as an unprecedented 33rd World Cup entrant. As a result, FIFA announced a review into the use of technology or extra officials at the highest level, but decided against the widely expected fast-tracking of goal-line referee's assistants for the South African tournament.
Costa Rica complained over Uruguay's winning goal in the CONMEBOL–CONCACAF playoff, while Egypt and Algeria's November 2009 matches were surrounded by reports of crowd trouble. 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.
The 2010 tournament was the first World Cup not to feature any team making its debut appearance (Slovakia had not previously appeared under that name, but is considered by FIFA to be a continuation of the Czechoslovakia team that last played in the 1990 tournament). North Korea qualified for the first time since 1966; Honduras and New Zealand were both making their first appearances since 1982, and Algeria were at the Finals for the first time since the 1986 competition.
Five new stadiums were built for the tournament, and five of the existing venues were upgraded. Construction costs were expected to be R8.4 billion (just over US$1 billion.).
South Africa also improved its public transport infrastructure within the host cities, including Johannesburg's Gautrain and other metro systems, and major road networks were improved. In March 2009, Danny Jordaan, the president of the 2010 World Cup organising committee, reported that all stadiums for the tournament were on schedule to be completed within six months.
The country implemented special measures to ensure the safety and security of spectators in accordance with standard FIFA requirements, including a temporary restriction of flight operation in the airspace surrounding the stadiums.
At a ceremony to mark 100 days before the event, FIFA president Sepp Blatter praised the readiness of the country for the event.
Venues
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In 2005, the organisers released a provisional list of thirteen venues to be used for the World Cup: Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg (two venues), Kimberley, Klerksdorp, Nelspruit, Orkney, Polokwane, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria, and Rustenburg. This was narrowed down to the ten venues[31] that were officially announced by FIFA on 17 March 2006.
The altitude of several venues affected the motion of the ball and player performance, although FIFA's medical chief downplayed this consideration. Six of the ten venues were over 1200m above sea level, with the two Johannesburg stadiums (Soccer City and Ellis Park) the highest at approximately 1750m. The stadiums in order of altitude are: Soccer City and Ellis Park Stadium, 1753m; Royal Bafokeng Stadium, 1500m; Free State Stadium, 1400m; Peter Mokaba Stadium, 1310m; Loftus Versfeld Stadium, 1214m; Mbombela Stadium, 660m; Cape Town Stadium, Moses Mabhida Stadium and Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium near sea level.
Final draw
See also: 2010 FIFA World Cup seeding
The FIFA Organising Committee approved the procedure for the final draw on 2 December 2009. The seeding was based on the October 2009 FIFA World Ranking and seven squads joined hosts South Africa as seeded teams for the final draw. No two teams from the same confederation were to be drawn in the same group, except allowing a maximum of two European teams in a group.
Pot 1 (Seeds: host & top seven):
South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England
Pot 2 (Asia, North/Central America and Caribbean & Oceania):
Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Honduras, Mexico, United States, New Zealand
Pot 3 (Africa & South America):
Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay
Pot 4 (Europe):
Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland
The group draw was staged in Cape Town, South Africa, on 4 December 2009 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
The ceremony was presented by South African actress Charlize Theron, assisted by FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke.The balls were drawn by English football star David Beckham and African sporting figures Haile Gebrselassie, John Smit, Makhaya Ntini, Matthew Booth and Simphiwe Dludlu.
