FIFA World Cup 2010

The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the 19th FIFA World Cup, the premier international football tournament. It is scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa. The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the culmination of a qualification process that began in August 2007 and involved 204 of the 208 FIFA national teams. This will be the first time that the tournament has been hosted by an African nation, after South Africa beat Morocco and Egypt in an all-African bidding process. Italy is the defending champions. The draw for the finals will take place on 4 December 2009 in Cape Town. The official mascot for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is Zakumi, an anthropomorphized leopard with green hair. His name comes from “ZA”, the international abbreviation for South Africa. Five new stadiums are to be built for the tournament and Danny Jordan, the president of the 2010 World Cup organizing committee expected that all stadiums for the tournament to be completed by end of 2009.