FIFA WORLD CUP 2010 HOST CITIES- CAPE TOWN

Cape Town

One would be hard pressed to find a reason not to fall in love with the port city of Cape Town. It has one of the most idyllic settings - nestled between and around the ocean and mountains. The iconic Table Mountain rises 1,086 above the city and has served as a mariner's landmark. On a clear day, the flat-topped mountain is visible 200km out to sea.

The so-called "Mother city" has an abundance of contrasting activities from lounging on the Atlantic seaboard's popular beaches to exploring the vividly painted area of the Bo-Kaap. Hout Bay is a hub for fishing, especially tuna and crayfish, and the historical naval base at Simon's Town has a fascinating past.

The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront is a great location for shopping, and is also host to the Two Oceans Aquarium, depicting sea life from the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Long Street has long been a place of bustling nightlife and there is a wealth of museums in the city to discover. The Western Cape area is renowned as a wine-producing area, and there are tours available along the 'wine route'.

Cape Town has distinct Malay influences, reminiscent of days when the spice route travelled via its shores. There are also many foreign people who have made Cape Town their home, and the result is a hybrid of cultures in a cosmopolitan city.

History
Cape Town had its first inhabitants as early as 100,000 BC, when hunter-gatherers roamed the Cape Peninsula. After the arrival of European sailors in 1652, it became a haven for sailors who travelled along the African coast on the spice route to India.

The city has also played an important role in contemporary South African history. Robben Island was used as a prison for political prisoners as early as 1898, but became famous as the place of incarceration for the Rivonia Trial accused, which included Nelson Mandela.

Cape Town has been the legislative capital of South Africa since 1910. The Houses of Parliament, still in use today, were built in 1885.

Football
Cape Town has produced many of South Africa's top recent internationals such as Shaun Bartlett, Benni McCarthy and past heroes such as Albert Johannensen and David Julius, who played top football in Europe.

Cape Town has also produced three of South African football's most exalted figures. Quinton Fortune signed to Manchester United in 1999. He was soon followed by his former Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Queiroz, who is now the assistant manager to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. In 2006, Fortune made the move to Bolton Wanderers.

Benni Macarthy has enjoyed international success, winning the UEFA Champions League with FC Porto under the leadership of Jose Mourinho. He also won a Portuguese top flight Golden Boot. He currently plays for Blackburn Rovers, where he finished as the Premiership's second leading marksman in his first season in England.

Sean Bartlett played for FC Zurich in 1998 and then made the move to Charlton Athletic in 2000. During his tenure at Charlton, he helped the club consolidate their position in the English top flight. He is the most capped Bafana Bafana striker, and has scored the most goals for his country.

Hellenic were the first Cape Town side to win a championship in 1971, soon followed by Cape Town City. In 1995, Cape Town Spurs swept the board and did the double, claiming the league and knockout cup crowns. All three clubs have since folded.

Ajax Cape Town and Santos, champions in 2002, continue the keep professional football alive in the city. Ajax Cape Town is an affiliate of Ajax Amsterdam and has scouted many talents who made the move to Amsterdam, including Steven Pienaar, Gabriel Mofokeng and Stanton Lewis.

Vasco Da Gama is a small football club started in 1980. Despite its size, the club has produced a wealth of Bafana Bafana national team players. Goalkeeper Andre Arendse, midfielder Thabo Mngomeni and forward Shaun Bartlett played for the club, as did David Nyathi, who was selected for the FIFA World XI and turned out in Switzerland, Turkey and Spain.

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FIFA WORLD CUP 2010 HOST CITIES

INILAH SAUDARA- SAUDARA, 9 KOTA YANG MENJADI LOKASI PERTANDINGAN PIALA DUNIA 2010....

OLE- OLE- OLE

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ENGLISH TRIO REFLECT ON SECOND MATCH

Howard Webb provides his final update from South Africa

Our second match in the Confederations Cup 2009 was Iraq’s match with New Zealand played at Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg on Saturday. Iraq needed a win, coupled with South Africa failing to pick up maximum points against Spain on the same evening, in order to progress. The match wasn’t a classic although both teams showed plenty of endeavour. It ended 0-0, which was celebrated in the stadium like a victory for the 25,000 local fans, who were delighted that Iraq failed to win thereby putting South Africa through to the semi-finals. It was also celebrated wildly by New Zealand, who had secured their first ever Confederations Cup point!

The match was a straight forward one for us, with no critical incidents and only two yellow cards shown. FIFA were again happy with how we had performed and in the subsequent instructor’s de-brief, there was only one clip shown from our match - that being a good non-offside decision by Mike Mullarkey.

The following day, on Sunday, we visited Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld Stadium where we saw Brazil comprehensively beat Italy 3-0. The atmosphere within the capacity crowd was excellent, with the much discussed Vuvuzela horns getting a very noisy outing. The sound of these African horns was a little strange at first but you do get used to them and they will live long in the memory, not least because we bought some to bring home for the kids! They are not as easy to blow as you might think, and there is a technique involved in making the famous sound they create.

After these final group stage games at the weekend, we had a day off on Monday when we visited the Lion Park again (it was still as amazing as the first time we went, having a real opportunity to see these amazing animals close-up) and then a return to the Carnivore restaurant in Johannesburg where we again sampled zebra, crocodile and antelope to name but a few exotic meats which were on offer.
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On Tuesday, the announcements were made as to which teams of referees would be staying for the final four games of the tournament. We knew that we would be very unlikely to be staying – we had already banked two solid matches whilst most of the teams of officials had only been involved in one game up to that point. This is a small tournament which means that realistically, two games was the maximum number that any referee team could hope for.

The fact that we had an early group stage game which went well meant that it was almost inevitable that we would receive another group stage game and that was how things turned out. FIFA kept a team of officials from each continent and two teams from UEFA, these being the teams who had officiated in one game. When the announcement was made that we would not be retained, naturally we were a little disappointed not to be staying to the end of the tournament but the goal was always to perform well in two matches, thereby making our chances of returning next year for the World Cup that much better, and we certainly achieved that.

The experiences of being involved in The FIFA Confederations Cup 2009 will live long in our memories, and will make preparation for next year’s World Cup so much easier, should we be lucky enough to be selected. Of course, there is a lot of hard work to do between now and then if we are to realise that dream. But we return from South Africa satisfied that through solid teamwork and a good deal of effort, we gave a sound account of ourselves. We were proud to be able to represent English refereeing.

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South Africa 2009 in numbers

On Sunday, the curtain will come up on the eighth edition of the FIFA Confederations Cup. As South Africa prepares to welcome the world, FIFA.com takes a statistical look at the past, present and future of the beautiful game's Festival of Champions.


36000
is the FIFA Confederations Cup's overall average attendance. Mexico 1999 is the competition's best-supported edition to date, with a tournament average of over 60,000 and a final attended by 110,000 at the fabled Azteca.

572
minutes without conceding saw Cameroon set a new FIFA Confederations Cup record in 2003, eclipsing the previous benchmark of 472 strung together by Brazil between the 1997 and 1999 editions.

100
per cent: that is Italy's current record on African soil, with the Azzurri having won all three of the full internationals they have played on the mother continent. This run was started by a 2-1 victory over Egypt in a FIFA World Cup™ qualifier in 1953, a result that precipitated friendly wins over Czechoslovakia (3-0) later the same year and Tunisia (4-0) in 2004.

50
goals have comfortably established Brazil as the highest-scoring team in FIFA Confederations Cup history, followed by Mexico (33) and France (24). In their three finals alone, A Seleção have hit the net 13 times, putting six goals past Australia in 1997, winning 4-1 against Argentina in 2005 and going down to a dramatic 4-3 defeat by Mexico in 1999.

28
years and 7 months is the average age of the Italy squad, making the Azzurri the oldest team at South Africa 2009. Iraq, the tournament's youngest, have an average age of less than 25.

16
years and eight months when he turned out in the 1995 edition, Japan's Satoshi Yamaguchi remains the Confederations Cup's youngest-ever player. With New Zealand forward Chris Wood the youngest of the 184 players bound for South Africa 2009 at 17 years and six months, this is one record that has no chance of falling over the next two weeks.

12
consecutive victories and 32 matches unbeaten: these are the sequences that have helped establish Spain as the pre-tournament favourites. During the latter run, which stretches all the way back to 15 November 2006, La Roja have kept 21 clean sheets.

10
years ago, Spain travelled to Africa for another FIFA tournament - and returned with the trophy. South Africa 2009 hopefuls Iker Casillas, Carlos Marchena and Xavi all featured in the squad who took gold at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Nigeria.

9
goals have established Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Ronaldinho as the FIFA Confederations Cup's all-time leading scorers, two ahead of Romario and Adriano. Ronaldinho accrued his tally over the 1997, 2003 and 2005 editions, while Blanco needed just two (1997 and 1999) to rack up the same tally.

7
Wellington Phoenix players will be at the FIFA Confederations Cup, making the New Zealand-based Australian A-League outfit the tournament's best-represented club. Liverpool and Valencia each boast six, while Al Ahly, Barcelona, Juventus and Villarreal follow on five apiece.

5
tournaments, 22 matches and two winners' medals: these are the statistics that have established Dida as the FIFA Confederations Cup's most experienced and successful player. The Brazilian keeper, who has been omitted from the Seleção squad this time around, missed just eight minutes of action of the five FIFA Confederations Cups between 1997 and 2005.

3
of the top five teams in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking - Spain, Italy and Brazil - will be competing at this year's FIFA Confederations Cup. This is the first time in the tournament's history that this has happened.

2
titles apiece make Brazil and France the FIFA Confederations Cup's joint-most successful sides. A Seleção (1997 and 2005) and Les Bleus (2001 and 2003) have emerged triumphant in four out of the last five editions, while Argentina (1992), Denmark (1995) and Mexico (1999) each have a solitary triumph to their names.

1
team have successfully defended the FIFA Confederations Cup: France. Les Bleus retained the title in 2003, edging out Cameroon on home soil in the final two years after beating hosts Japan to the title in the Far East.

0
- that is how many FIFA Confederations Cups Brazil have missed out on since the tournament came under the FIFA umbrella in 1997. The South Americans, who are the only survivors from Germany 2005, are preparing to compete in a record sixth successive edition.
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Zakumi - a Mascot with attitude

So what can we say about him? One thing is for sure, Zakumi will be first on the dancefloor and last off it at the biggest party in the world - the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. He wants to dance and entertain as many people as he can. He is an animator for fans, players and officials, for schoolchildren, teenagers and big kids alike!

Needless to say, he is extremely proud to be the Official Mascot and determined to be the best host for everyone visiting his beloved country. He symbolizes South Africa and the rest of the African continent through his self-confidence, pride, hospitality, social skills and warm-heartedness.

Zakumi is a jolly, self-confident, adventurous, spontaneous, and actually quite shrewd little fellow. He loves to perform and always follows his instinct and intuition, yet sometimes has the tendency to exaggerate a bit. You will often find him fooling about and teasing people but not in a mean way. He is warm-hearted and caring, and wants to make as many friends as possible.

He loves to play football as it is a great way to connect with others and break down language barriers. He always carries his football around which he will use to invite people to play with him.

Zakumi loves football. At one time he decided to dye his hair green as he felt it would be the perfect camouflage against the green of the football pitch; a bit like his rosette spots are when hunting in the wilderness!

He does have one striking weakness. With all his energy, he needs frequent rests. Occasionally, in-between performances on stage, he may suddenly fall asleep on the spot at the most random times! But rest assured, these are only short breaks that a leopard of his calibre needs to recharge his batteries.

Over the last years he has travelled the whole of Africa where the leopard habitat is good (pretty much everywhere from open savannahs, forests, jungles to mountainous areas, even deserts). He has therefore learned to adapt to new environments; enjoying the diversity in nature and people across the African continent

The name ‘Zakumi' is a composition of ‘ZA' standing for South Africa and ‘kumi', which translates into ‘10' in various languages across Africa.

Zakumi's main priority is to turn the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa into one huge, joyful and unforgettable party and show the thousands of international guests the warmth and spirit of the African continent.

"He wants to create a good mood for the fans and raise the excitement for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the first on African soil. He is a proud South African and wants to ensure that the world will come together in South Africa," explained Lucas Radebe, South Africa's football icon and close friend of Zakumi.

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