Brazil will host the 2014 FIFA World Cup

The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th World Cup, an international tournament for football, that is expected to take place between June and July 2014 in Brazil.

This will be the second time the country has hosted the competition, the first being the 1950 FIFA World Cup. Brazil will become the fifth country to have hosted the FIFA World Cup twice, after Mexico, Italy, France, and Germany. It will be the first World Cup to have been held in South America since the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina, and the first time consecutive World Cups have been staged in the Southern Hemisphere. Brazil also will become the first nation to break the well-established chain of allowing a European nation to host the World Cup Finals every eight years.

On 7 March 2003, the world football body FIFA announced that the tournament would be held in South America for the first time since Argentina hosted the 1978 FIFA World Cup, in line with its policy of rotating the right to host the World Cup amongst different confederations. On 3 June 2003, CONMEBOL announced that Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia wanted to host the 2014 World Cup finals

By 17 March 2004, the CONMEBOL associations had voted unanimously to adopt Brazil as their sole candidate.

Brazil formally declared its candidacy in December 2006 and Colombia did so as well a few days later. The Argentina bid never materialized. On 11 April 2007, Colombia officially withdrew its bid making Brazil the only official candidate to host the event in 2014.

Brazil won the right to host the event on 30 October 2007 as the only country to enter a bid.

The World Cup 2010 : Lifting the spirits of a nation

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is the first on African soil. We're set for a great spectacle, but it's been a bumpy road


The prospect of playing host to the mostwatched sporting event on earth – the FIFA World Cup – is mouth watering and the competition to host the tournament is, perhaps unsurprisingly, fierce. Already, English papers are dominated by the FA’s bid to host the event in 2018 or 2022, having famously failed in an attempt to host the 2006 competition.

“Hosting the World Cup is big business,” explains Martjin Kuipers, Managing Director of Mammoet Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd, talking about how the 2010 World Cup – to be held in South Africa – is boosting the country’s economy. “My company is certainly benefitting.” Indeed, as South Africa gears up to host next year’s ‘tournament of champions’, stadiums are busily being upgraded and built – great news for firms like Mammoet. “We are doing our bit,” Kuipers adds. “It makes you proud to be South African.”

Kuipers isn’t the only South African taking pride from the World Cup bid. The third instalment of a six-wave public opinion tracking study carried out by international research company SPORT+MARKT, on FIFA’s behalf, soon after the final whistle at the FIFA Confederations Cup in June, suggested that South Africa is more than ready to host the event and recognises the legacy such tournaments can leave behind. The key extracts from those findings were that 87 percent of those surveyed felt their country will be ready to host the World Cup, while an impressive 93 percent said they were proud that South Africa is host. Another significant figure was that 85 percent of those surveyed said the event will bring long-term benefits to the country.

Danny Jordaan, the man charged with organising the World Cup, and one of those convinced of the long-term benefits of the tournament, recently spoke to goal.com of his belief that the World Cup will – like those before it – stimulate future economic growth. He feels it will “bring people together and will have a major impact in building racial harmony,” and revealed his joy at seeing blacks and whites, rich and poor, mixing and sitting together at football matches during the summer’s Confederations Cup. He also dismissed concerns over transport, accommodation and crime during the event. “It is an experience that many people have never had,” he explained. “The doubting Thomases are now believing the Thomases.”

Indeed, off the field, for South Africans, the success should be far greater, far more important, and lasting. Already, billions have been pumped into infrastructure improvements on public transport, roads and telecommunications. “It [the World Cup] will certainly raise South Africa’s profiles abroad,” says Joshua Ngoma CEO and co-founder of Tranter Holdings and a leading South African black mining-industry personality.

Benefits will also come in the shape of tourism, which is expected to boom during the tournament. “They’re anticipating between 200,000 and 300,000 overseas tourists coming to the country during the World Cup,” says Dave Erskine, CEO of Erbacon, a leading South African construction firm which is currently working on the promenade at the entrance to the Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban. “It’ll be a huge boost to the economy and it’s going to expose the country to a few hundred thousand people who’ve never been here before; we’re certainly looking at the return visits after the World Cup.” Already 9.5 million tourists visit South Africa annually.

DOUBTS REMAIN

Lingering doubts do remain, however, and crime is one major concern for visitors. One England fan, who wishes to remain anonymous, told me of his ‘fear’ of being ‘set upon’ by bandits and instances like the Egyptian team hotel being broken into during their match with Italy at the Confederations Cup (according to reports in the Guardian newspaper) hardly inspire confidence.

There are concerns too about inflated prices in South Africa as a result of the tournament and the new tourists it will bring. Erskine comments: “I’ve got no doubt that it will be a very successful World Cup despite some concerns in the media. Over the past year, we’ve had some fairly large sporting events, not on the scale of the World Cup, but we had the Confederations Cup and the Indian IPL League, which was brought over here at short notice; both of those sporting events went off very well. The World Cup is obviously on a much larger scale but all the stadiums are on track and expected ahead of schedule.

“Accommodation was thought to be a problem,” he adds, “but that seems to be resolved – there’s a whole network of accommodation providers – and I do think the country is in the position to stage a very successful tournament.”

Despite Erskine’s optimism, there is real trepidation that certain South Africa cities will be unable to accommodate travelling spectators.

Hotels in Polokwane, one of the lesser-known of the 2010 FIFA World Cup host cities, for example, are rare. This will force football lovers to take rooms in hotels some distance away, with Cape Town and Johannesburg expected to take the brunt.

GREAT SPECTACLE

Regardless of the politics or debate surrounding next summer’s highly anticipated tournament, South Africans are determined to enjoy the event. Irrespective of any concerns about crime, infrastructure or anything else – including the Bafana Bafana’s performances on the pitch – the World Cup has a history of uniting and I, for one, am looking forward to it. The South African government has shown great commitment and all parties involved are working around the clock to ensure South Africa and Africa deliver a flourishing World Cup which will leave a lasting legacy.

FIFA and its President Sepp Blatter took a gamble when awarding the tournament to South Africa, but it will pay off. World Cups are obliged to leave a positive legacy and it is legitimate to suppose that it will make a more lasting impact in South Africa than a wealthy economy of Western Europe. The tournament will ultimately make a huge profit for FIFA, whose income from broadcast rights is astronomical. The benefits to a nation are harder to specify but South Africa should do just fine. The World Cup after all is much more than football or finance – it has the potential to lift the spirits of a nation.

Source :
http://www.execdigital.co.uk/The-World-Cup-2010--Lifting-the-spirits-of-a-nation_36419.aspx

Nation gears up to receive World Cup trophy

Addis Ababa, October 28 (WIC) - Ethiopia launched on Tuesday a national campaign for the arrival of the World Cup trophy, expected here on 17 November, 2009.

According to the African Press Agency (APA), the organizers announced that the World Cup will stay in the country for three days and a number of people will have the chance to see the golden cup.

The Coca Cola Company is sponsoring the tour.

The organizers said that there will be a chance for sport fans to closely see the cup and take photos at a ceremony to be organized on 18 November.

The FIFA World Cup trophy kicked off its tour of African countries on 24 September in Cairo, Egypt, ahead of the first ever World Cup on African soil to be hosted by South Africa in June and July 2010.

The cup will be visiting some 50 countries in Africa in about 70 days. The tour ends in Cape Town, South Africa on 3 December, the day before the World Cup drawing of lots is held in that country.

Groups and Standings

Check Groups and Standings on official FIFA 2010 worldcup.
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/southamerica/standings/index.html

2010 to be 'a great festival of football'

South Africa is on track to deliver on its promise to successfully host the 2010 FIFA World Cup between 11 June and 11 July 2010, says South African Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan.

Tabling his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement in Parliament on Tuesday, Minister Gordhan said South Africa would host ‘a great festival of football'.

"Yes we can. Next year, as we invite the world to join us in a great festival of football, we will demonstrate that we can take on a giant project, work to a plan, complete major construction projects, reconfigure city transport systems, and energise a uniquely South African diversity of hospitality arrangements," he said.

Gordhan said South Africa had silenced skeptics. "Of course there were skeptics - there were those who said we couldn't do it, who talked about the lights going out, who spread dark rumours of plan B - but those voices are now silent.

"Our preparation for the 2010 World Cup began with a vision, and a statement of intent," he said.

National government is responsible for the delivery of 17 guarantees made to FIFA. These guarantees are contained in the bid book and are required of any country that wishes to host the World Cup.

The 17 guarantees provided by various government departments cover access to South Africa, a supportive financial environment, intellectual property and marketing rights, safety and security, healthcare services, transport and telecommunications. BuaNews

Source : http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/newsid=1124742.html#2010+great+festival+football