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2010 FIFA World Cup, the prime international tournament for football has begun on June 11 being hosted by South Africa. This 2010 football world cup would be the 19th FIFA tournament. South Africa became the first African country to host football world cup beating the nations of Egypt and Morocco in the bidding. The cup is being hosted by the popular federation named Oceania Football Confederation.

In August 2007, the process for the world cup tournament qualification began. 204 nations out of 208 national teams under FIFA participated and 32 teams cleared up to the final tournament. From the Asian Football Confederation, four teams have qualified that includes Australia, Korea Republic, Korea DPR and Japan. From the confederation of African Football, the qualified team includes South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Algeria and Cote d’Ivoire. From the Confederation of Central American, North and Caribbean Association, Mexico, the United States and Honduras have qualified for the world football.

The five teams of Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay for the World Cup come from the South American Football Confederation. The Oceania Football Confederation, the host of world football, has the nation of New Zealand playing in the tournament. 13 nations are qualified from The Union of European Football also popular as UEFA. These include the nations of England, France, Denmark, Italy, Greece, Netherlands, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Slovakia, Portugal and Slovenia.

There a total of eight groups each comprising of four countries. The Group A consists of Uruguay, Mexico, France and South Africa. Argentina, Korea Republic, Greece and Nigeria form the Group B. Group C includes Slovenia, USA, England and Algeria. The national teams of Germany, Ghana, Serbia and Australia together form the Group D. Netherlands, Japan, Cameroon and Denmark comprise Group E. Paraguay, Italy, New Zealand and Slovakia represent Group F. Group G constitutes of Brazil, Cote d’Ivoire, Portugal and Korea DPR. The nations of Chile, Switzerland, Honduras and Spain fall under the Group H.

The one-month tournament is deemed one of the biggest sports events of the year. Football fans are flocking to South Africa to watch and cheer their favorite team and players. The cities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban have been prepared with especially constructed multi-billion Rand Stadium for the 2010 FIFA World Cup schedule, with high security procedures and protocol. Few of the favorite players, this season are Lionel Messi from Argentina, Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal, Wayne Rooney from England and Kaka playing for Brazil.

Millions who are crazy football fans but could not make it to the host country could watch the event on their television screens as FIFA has sold its broadcasting rights to many broadcasters across the globe. Italy was the 2006 FIFA World Cup champion, winning the title for the fourth time.

The FIFA World Cup is very important in the world of international football, also known as soccer. The World Cup is contested by the men’s national football teams of FIFA member nations and is awarded every 4 years. There have been 17 tournaments held to date, but only 7 nations have won the World Cup Finals. The nation of Brazil holds the cup currently and have won the cup a total of 5 times making them the leading team. The next World Cup Finals will be held in Germany where Germany holds 3 titles.

In 1872 the first international football match was played between England and Scotland. In the beginning of the sport there were never medals awarded. It was called a demonstration sport and was played at the Olympics.

In 1909 the game was finally played for a trophy and was organized by Sir Thomas Lipton. That game is often referred to a the first World Cup. The title was won by West Auckland. They won again in 1911.

In 1914 FIFA recognized the tournament as “world football for amateurs”. This how things led to the first intercontinental football competition in 1924 at the summer Olympics. Uruguay won the tournament. In 1928 FIFA came up with their own international tournament.

Because football was not very popular in the united states it was not part of the program for the 1932 Olympics held in Los Angeles.