Introduced in the year 1930, the World Cup Football tournaments have been organized 18 times till 2006. The 19th edition is scheduled to be held in South Africa in 2010. The World Cup Football 2010 is going to be unique in many respects. Firstly, it will be the first tournament of its kind which is going to be held on the African soil. All the previous World Cups have been played in Europe, North and South America and Asia. Once the World Cup Football 2010 gets going, only Australia would be left to organize this mega event. Secondly, this tournament will be organized by a country which is not a member of the Oceania Football Confederation. As South Africa belongs to the Confederation of African Football, this deviation has never occurred in the history of World Cup soccer.
The World Cup Football 2010 will be a month-long sporting fiesta. The curtains will be raised on 11 June 2010 and the final match of the championship will be played on 11 July. FIFA selected the continent of Africa as the host for the World Cup in 2010 according to their scheme of spreading the game to all corners of the globe, especially in underprivileged areas. FIFA has also devised a new policy to rotate the organizing responsibility among all the football confederations. From five contending countries, South Africa was eventually chosen to host the World Cup Football 2010. The other four nations who placed their bids were Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Initially Tunisia was chosen as the co-hosting nation for the World Cup Football 2010. But FIFA Executive Committee later on decided not to give permission for World Cup tournaments to be co-hosted. Accordingly, Tunisia had to withdraw from the bidding procedure. Libya too did not qualify as it failed to meet the conditions laid down in the formal list of prerequisites.
The whole of South Africa went ecstatic as the FIFA president Sepp Blatter officially declared South Africa as the hosting nation of the World Cup Football 2010 at a press meet in Zurich on May 15, 2004. It was a dream come true for everyone concerned with South African football, from players to fans. South Africa got 14 votes in their favor, defeating Morocco and Egypt who got 10 and 0 votes respectively.
As per the longstanding FIFA regulations, South Africa being the hosting nation has automatically earned the qualification status. Italy, however, no longer qualifies automatically by virtue of winning the earlier edition of the World Cup. This rule has been changed since the 2002 World Cup. Now every country must go through the qualifying stages to secure a prestigious berth in the World Cup finals.
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