World Cup 2010 cities

Team # 1 South Africa national football (Bafana Bafana)

Qualifying for seven consecutive CAF Africa Nations Cups may have been a fine achievement but the South Africans were made to sweat before clinching their place at Ghana 2008. The result of their travails was a fall down the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking to their lowest position in over a decade. Worse was to come at the finals themselves with a disappointing return of two draws in three games, and three goals scored against five conceded.

But drawn in the same group as powerhouse Nigeria as well as the unknown quantity of Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone, it will prove a potential baptism of fire for new coach Joel Santana.

The Brazilian has been brought in to replace compatriot Carlos Alberto Parreira, who quit unexpectedly after 15 months for family reasons. Parreira had begun the building of the foundations of a side that South Africa hope will prove competitive when they host the 2010 finals.

South Africa are well aware of the importance of building a strong home side for 2010 and, although flying low under the radar at the moment, they hope to be in among the big guns in two years from now.

Santana is also looking to bring in new blood alongside a generation of stars now on the wrong side of 30. The likes of Benni McCarthy, Sibusiso Zuma and Siyabonga Nomvete could still be around come 2010, but the Brazilian is pinning his hopes on Teko Modise, Thembinkosi Fanteni and their ilk as he builds for the future.

It is only 15 years ago that South Africa was re-admitted to FIFA, yet they have amassed an impressive international record since. A first (1996), second (1998) and third (2000) place at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations, as well as two appearances at the finals of the FIFA World Cup (1998, 2002) , is something that most other countries in Africa can only dream of.

"We accept with humility and without arrogance" Mandela

FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter announced the results of the vote at a media conference on Saturday, 15 May 2004, at the World Trade Center in Zurich in the presence of high-ranking government officials of the candidate countries as well as hundreds of media representatives from all around the world. In a short address prior to announcing the host nation, Blatter thanked the five bidders for their excellent work and stressed: "The winner is Africa. The winner is football."

Convening on Saturday morning to discuss the applications for the final time, the FIFA Executive Committee only had to deliberate over four bids, as prior to the associations' presentations on 14 May, the FIFA Executive Committee had once again confirmed that the FIFA Statutes did not provide for a co-hosting arrangement. This confirmation led Tunisia to withdraw its bid. Furthermore, during its final deliberations, the Executive Committee came to the conclusion that it could no longer consider Libya's bid as it did not meet all the stipulations laid down in the official List of Requirements. The executive also thanked the Libyan Football Federation for its work during the bidding procedure.

The result of the vote represents the highlight and climax of an 18-month procedure that began at the end of 2002 with the African member associations invited to declare an interest in hosting the tournament. As well as the five countries that submitted full bid files and received visits from the FIFA Inspection Group between October 2003 and the end of January 2004, Nigeria had also shown initial interest but decided against following it up at the end of September 2003.

In 2000, following the dramatic result of the voting for the host nation of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ with Germany prevailing by 12 votes to 11 (with one abstention), the FIFA Executive Committee decided to introduce a rotation policy for the FIFA World Cup™ and accorded Africa the right to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. FIFA's flagship event will be held in South America in 2014.