FIFA World Cup 2010 - Real Football Carnival

Football is the most popular game in the world. It has the highest number of viewers and fans than any other games. FIFA (Federation of International Football Association) World Cup started in 1930 is conducted once in every 4 years.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is the 19th FIFA World Cup, being held in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July. It is the first time the finals of the tournament have been staged in an African host nation. South Africa was selected as hosts in May 2004 over Morocco and Egypt.

This is the first World Cup that does not include any teams that are qualifying for the first time, although two of the qualifiers (Slovakia and Serbia) have previously appeared only as parts of former competing nations. Slovakia was previously part of Czechoslovakia, and Serbia has competed as part of Yugoslavia.

     4 teams from AFC (Asian Football Confederation are follows

1.       Australia (Australia decided to play in AFC instead of OFC (Oceania Football Confederation)
2.       Japan
3.       South Korea
4.       North Korea

      3 Teams from CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean association football)

1.       Honduras
2.       Mexico
3.       United States

      13 Teams from UEFA (Union of European Football Association)

1.       Denmark
2.       England
3.       France
4.       Germany
5.       Greece
6.       Italy
7.       Netherlands
8.       Portugal
9.       Serbia
10.       Slovakia
11.       Slovenia
12.       Spain
13.       Switzerland

      6 Teams from CAF (Confederation of African Football)

1.       Algeria
2.       Cameroon
3.       Ghana
4.       Ivory Coast
5.       Nigeria
6.       South Africa

      5 Teams from CONMEBOL (The South American Football Confederation)

1.       Argentina
2.       Brazil
3.       Chile
4.       Paraguay
5.       Uruguay

      1 Team from OFC (Oceania Football Confederation)

1.       New Zealand

      32 teams are grouped into 8 with 4 teams in each group.

Out of these 8 groups Group G is the toughest one with strong teams. In the first round each team in that particular group must play with each other so that each team in a group will have to play 3 games each. If they win they will get 3 Points and if the match is drawn then both team will get 1 point each. Two team with more points from each group will go to the pre-quarter .If two teams in a group has the same points from their group matches then goal difference and goals scored will be considered as the selection criteria for the pre-quarter

Out of these 32 teams 16 will be eliminated in the first round and the remaining 16 teams will be qualified for the pre-quarter. From pre-quarter onwards tournament will be in a knock out manner which means there should be a definite result for the match and there can't be any draw matches like in group stages. So if a team can't win the match in 90 minutes then an extra 30 minutes will be allowed and the team who scores maximum goal in this will be the winner.

If still any of the teams are not able to score any or score equally then the match will move to a penalty shootout. In this each team will be given 5 penalty shoot outs and the team which shoots the maximum goals will be the winner of this match. If still the teams score equal number of goals then match will be move on to tiebreaker.

Here each team is allowed one penalty each and whichever team misses the penalty they will be the looser. This is also known as sudden death. Out of these 16 qualified teams for Pre-quarter 8 will be eliminated (losers) and the remaining 8 teams (winners) will step into the quarter finals.

The 4 matches in the quarterfinals will decide 4 winning teams for the semis and the remaining 4 teams (losers) will be out of the tournament. In the Semi Final two matches will be held and from this the 2 winning teams will be qualified for the final of FIFA world cup 2010 on July 11^th at South Africa. The Final match will bring out the FIFA World Cup Championof 2010 and the loser will be the runner up.

FIFA World Cup could bring a soccer mania throughout the world. This is the only game viewed by people all over the world. This one month carnival has put the world into a mood of team spirit and enthusiasm which no other games could bring. This World Cup not only brings lots of excitement and joy of classic football matches but also help South Africa to improve their economy come up to a level of developing nation.