World Cup 2010 News Archives

A few weeks ago, the U.S. economy was rocked with the downfall of $20 billion company Bear Stearns. Americans hear worrying news reports on the state of the economy on a seemingly hourly basis, but Bear Stearns seemed to be surprising.

It was merely a span of a few days from the time Bear Stearns went national with assurances that the company was secure, to the news that J.P. Morgan had bought out one of its largest competitors. Confidence, some analysts stressed, is a large factor in driving the success of any economy or company. Bear Stearns lacked that confidence; they panicked, and the result was nearly a full collapse.

So with FIFA recently admitting that they are preparing a £400m contingency fund in preparation for the possible collapse of the 2010 South African World Cup, confidence seems, to say the least, to be a bit shaky. The governing body has at last looked in the eye some of the concerns that soccer fans have been outlining all along – a lack of solid infrastructure, shoddy safety for the players and the spectators, inadequate stadiums, and a lack of tourism appeal and hospitality to make this more developing country seem as alluring as the lodgings of the more recent Cups – Germany, the United States, Japan and Korea, and France are all considerably more developed than South Africa.

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Much has been made about the strength of South Africa’s infrastructure to host a successful World Cup. To that end, South Africa is considering beefing up their capabilities in providing the best World Cup possible by legalizing prostitution.

It was South African police commissioner Jackie Selebi who first proposed the idea, arguing that if prostitution is legalized, it would free up police to deal with more pressing security issues, but last Wednesday, at an Arts and Culture Department meeting on its plans for social cohesion for 2010, the proposal was presented again, this time from ANC MP George Lekgetho. “It is one of the things that would make it [the tournament] a success because we hear of many rapes, because people don’t have access to them [women],” Lekgetho stated during a meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture in Parliament.

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In today’s video roundup we look at two of today’s World Cup Qualifiers. Yesterday’s U21 Euro Qualifiers and Friendly is also covered.

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When England’s 2010 World Cup qualifying group was announced, one tabloid headline - “Oh No! It’s Cro!” summed up the public reaction best. England need to win their group to qualify for South Africa 2010 and seeing Croatia’s impressive (and consistent) record in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, it would be a tough, tough task.

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In one of the first articles I ever wrote for Soccerlens, I delved into potential candidates for McClaren’s new-look England squad. As in this article, I employed a pun from the world of automobiles in the title, asking myself, and the readers, whether McClaren could get England off to a “racing start” in the Euro 2008 qualifiers.

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I’m a fan of David Beckham. I think he’s a hard working, solid player, completely outside of any marketing or publicity tools he brings to the table. I’m not sure that Beckham is one of the greatest players in world, but he is skillful, and particularly good at what he does. One of the things he does well is play England’s style of football.

With Croatia dropping England out of the Euro 2008 tournament, and McClaren getting sacked (finally), I’ve read an awful lot about the tactics that England plays and the style of their games. Forefront in many of those discussions are whether David Beckham has a role in the English team of the future.

Unless the team plans to play a radically different game than it has for the past 40 years, my thought is that he definitely does, if for no other reason than Beckham has the skills necessary to play the game that England plays. It’s easier to put him in the squad than try to change the way the country as a whole plays the game.

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Fabio Capello is one of the most successful football managers on the contemporary scene (see how Capello stands against top managers) - and yet the British press (as well as misguided observers across the world) have contrived to poke holes into the FA’s decision, calling it hasty, damaging to the English game and generally bad for England’s future.

Considering that the footballing authorities in England have a track record for bungling matters and hurting the future of the game in England, this sentiment is not surprising. However, when you see otherwise respected journalists pander to jingoistic emotions is disappointing - surely Richard Williams and his ilk have been in the business long enough to separate personal opinions from fact and deal accordingly?

This article deals with several issues raised in the last week - the ‘English v Foreigner’ debate, whether it was smart to ‘decide so early’, whether Capello will be good for England (no flair? the horror!) and of course, the potential England lineup under Fabio.

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In the aftermath of yet another failed qualifying campaign, Scotland can at least take great heart in their gutsy and impressive performances over the past 14 months. Those performances have seen an unprecedented rise through the FIFA Rankings to the all-time high of 13th place. Putting that into perspective, Scotland are now ranked higher than the USA, a country with almost 60 times the population, and Greece, the current European champions.

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Well, if you had any hopes of making trips to see England’s World Cup 2010 qualifying away ties, you might want to reconsider. Along with England and their newest rival, Croatia, there will forays to Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Andorra. So, let’s hope there aren’t any players who are afraid of flying, or Eastern Europeans for that matter. However, it might be good preparation for the World Cup in South Africa.

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The South Africa 2010 Preliminary Draw has paired England with their recent conquerers Croatia in the qualifying round. Responding to the draw, The Sun quoted:

Michael Owen has kick-started preparations for 2010 World Cup qualification in earnest by insisting none of the Croatian team would get into the England side.

Hold on a second. Has little Mickey unearthed the problem at the core of the England national side? That players deserving and capable of taking their team to the European Championships, wouldn’t even get into the team? A team over-flowing with overpaid, over-hyped, over-rated prima-donnas who for the most part are picked on reputation alone. Then it is no wonder that Owen and Co. will be enjoying a spot of Floridian sunshine next summer when Slavan Bilic takes his excellent Croatia side to the European Championship finals. You are judged on results in this game Michael - the results (and ability on display at Wembley last week) suggest that Croatia are far better than you.

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While the qualification race for the South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup has already started (in the region of South America), the build-up to the biggest football show on Earth is about to step up a gear, with the staging of the UEFA (Europe), CONCACAF (North-America), CAF (Africa), and AFC (Asia) regions Preliminary Draw in Durban this week-end. The whole ceremony will be broadcast live at FIFA.com who will also be providing live commentary of the event, including a special application showing the draw as it unfolds.

Update:
The European Groups have been drawn: England have been drawn in group 6 with Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra, and… get this: Croatia!! There will undoubtedly be an air of revenge at Wembley stadium…

Other interesting clashes include Portugal/Sweden/Denmark in Group 1,  Czech Republic/Poland in Group 3, Germany/Russia in Group 4, Spain/Turkey/Belgium in Group 5, France/Romania/Serbia in Group 7, Netherlands/Scotland/Norway in Group 9.

Current World Champions Italy have been drawn in Group 8 with Bulgaria, Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia, and Montenegro.

Full list of the groups after the jump.

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…or at least that’s what it feels like, considering Blatter’s latest move.

It was probably the panic that is quietly settling in as FIFA continues to keep a watchful eye on South Africa as it prepares to host World Cup 2010.

The next World Cup is still about two and a half years away, but the mutterings of soccer pundits have everyone wondering if South Africa will get their act together to make the necessary preparations for the massive tournament, and if not, what then. The crime, and not so much the infrastructure, seems to be the problem, and FIFA’s hands are rather tied in that respect.

FIFA surely must have anticipated this when they awarded South Africa 2010, but hindsight is 20/20, and these revelations, among others, might have been the triggers that FIFA needed to stop its World Cup continental rotation policy. The downside to this of course is that the ending of the rotation will likely close up the opportunity for smaller, non-European countries to stand much of a chance against the entirety of the European continent.

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Here we preview who will make the World Cup squad in 2010 for the United States. Opinions, recent performances, and tactical decisions are all factored into the decision. Updates will be posted regularly, as the season goes on.

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I’m an American, but only the most self-deluded fans here think we’re going to be a world power in the near future…though if Altidore progresses like he can, and we find a left back who doesn’t absolutely suck and we play like we did against Mexico in the Gold Cup, and we get a few lucky breaks…

Anyway, my point is, that I spend most of my time on the international level rooting for England. I like their players and I like the country. And since winning Euro 2008 looks like a lost cause (and if it forces the FA to drastically rethink how they approach the national team, it’ll be worth it), it’s never too early to start thinking about the World Cup in South Africa.

So, I’d like to share with you what I hope the Three Lions will look like in 2010:

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This article is for people who are curious about how football is perceived in South Africa, how the 2010 World Cup will change things in South Africa, why crime won’t be an issue and whether Benni MCarthy will ever play for SA again (all from a South African’s point of view).

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