2010 World Cup Reading List

Only 393 days until the 2010 World Cup starts!
Excited? Have your tickets yet?

My computer's been broken the past few weeks. So I've no idea what the latest news is concerning the world's biggest sporting event.

Instead of regurgitating a load of news, here's a list of required reading to get you all caught up, complete with my oh-so-witty commentary ...

1 - Q and A with New York Times writer and ‘Outcasts United’ author Warren St. John.

If you haven't read John's initial piece about the Fugees youth soccer team from Clarkson, GA, do yourself the favor and get to it. It's a wonderful article about a 'group of youth soccer players in a small southern town who came from some of the most war-ravaged places on earth.'

Since the article was written in 2006, John's gone on to publish a book about the team. Not about the World Cup, but certainly about the powerful affect of football on people, a team and a community.

2 - Rapper AKON is writing the 2010 World Cup anthem.

“I’ve been hired as musical director for the World Cup,” he told the Daily Mirror. “I will be overseeing the World Cup anthem and music at the ceremonies and I’m off to South Africa this week for meetings. I love soccer so it’s a great honor.”

3 - Kenya's players will receive 1 million Kenyan shillings if they qualify for the World Cup.

That works out to about $13,000 American dollars. Yes, please ...

4 - This is truly an African World Cup. Mauritius has teamed up with FIFA to join Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and hosts South Africa in a top line-up of accommodation providers.

The initiative forms part of FIFA's and the Local Organizing Committee's objective to host an African World Cup and make sure that the entire Southern African region benefits from the global football showpiece.

"We always said it is Africa's World Cup. To be part of the 2010 accommodation program is a great marketing opportunity for the tourism industry in the entire Southern African region to directly benefit from the World Cup. Mauritius and the other Southern African countries in the accommodation team have the unique chance to showcase fans from all over the world during the four weeks between June 11 and July 11, 2010 the splendid and diverse landscapes and the incredible hospitality the region has to offer," explained FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke.

5 - Big news as far as the African domestic game goes, as Al Ahly coach Manuel Jose has resigned and taken over the Angola coaching post.

In his six years in charge, Ahly won the African Champions League four times.

Angola hosts the 2010 African Cup of Nations next January.

Angola 2010: The Stadiums

2010 is a big year in African football. Not only will Africa host the 2010 World Cup, but see the re-appearance of their continental championship, the African Cup of Nations.

Today, the BBC takes a look at the progress of the stadiums being built for the tournament, being held in January 2010.

They're getting there, slowly but surely ...

2010 African Cup of Nations: Angola Prepares

It seems like just yesterday we were blogging about the finals of the African Cup of Nations tournament in Ghana.

But things move quickly in the world of football.

Today, news that the host nation of the 2010 African Cup of Nations, Angola, is confident their infrastructure will be ready in time for the tournament.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) seems to agree after an inspection team dropped in and snooped around.

The country sees the football tournament as a catalyst for change.

Much of Angola's infrastructure was destroyed by a 27-year civil war. Therefore, it's seen by some as an ambitious choice to host the Cup.

After only six years of peace, many roads remain poor, some still have land mines in them, there are few hotels and the country is hard to to get to for tourists.

But things can only get better.

If the amount of building that is going on in the capital of Luanda and the other main provinces is anything to go by, the competition is definitely leading to a rebirth of facilities.

Manuel Mariano, Angola's director of information and publicity for COCAN (the Cup's organizing committee), told the BBC: "We are a country in re-construction. We are a country in movement; the war was over six years ago.

"And you can notice what the changes are, that this country is going through, from North to South, from West to East and in the center. Therefore this is a task that the Angolans will perform and, like the President says, we will have a successful Nations Cup."

All over the country, and particularly in Luanda, new hotels are being built, and key roads linking the provincial capitals are being rebuilt, largely by Chinese construction companies.

MY POV: The Chinese have a hand in many public works projects in Africa, don't they? There's been a lot made of this as the burgeoning superpower makes inroads in the last great untouched economic expanse in the world.

The Chinese built the new stadiums and have the contracts to build the four other new stadiums in Luanda, Lubango, Cabinda and Benguela.

The Luanda stadium, which is in a new area of suburban development about 15 miles from the city center, will seat 50,000.

According to the CAF inspectors, this project and the stadiums in Benguela and Lubango are all running to schedule.

The stadium in Cabinda, however, is proving a little trickier.

Cabinda's geographical location, part of Angola but an isolated province within the DR of Congo, has hampered the building work.

The project is running around 20 days behind schedule, although this time is expected to be recovered over the next few months.

More than 4,000 foreign visitors are expected to come to the 2010 tournament and a lot of work is being done to enhance the capacity of the regional airports and rebuild sections of the railway destroyed during the civil war.

One concern is access to visas for visiting fans. COCAN say it is now entering the second stage of tournament preparation and this will look at the logistics for tourists and transportation.

Tickets will be pre-sold, the committee said, and a lot of work is going on behind the scenes to prepare the country for the influx of visitors, the group added.

The CAF inspectors are due back in January. Until then, it's all hands to the cement mixers.

MY POV: Thanks to the BBC for the majority of this article.

Once again, football plays a part in restoring civic pride and establishing a sense of collective unity in a land ravaged by infighting.

One only hopes Angola gets their infrastructure in place before the Cup and everything goes smoothly.

2010 is shaping up to be quite the year in African football, no?

Cup of Nations is Around the Corner

The venues are being scrubbed clean, the tickets are printed and the cities are bubbling with anticipation.

The African Cup of Nations is but a mere 2 weeks and 2 days away from taking over the minds and hearts of football fans around the globe.

Cup finalists begin their pre-tournament preparations in earnest this weekend, led by defending champions Egypt who host Namibia in a friendly.

Saturday's match in Aswan is the first of three warm-up matches for the Pharaohs, still sweating on the availability of star striker Mido.

The Middlesbrough forward has a knee injury and is unsure of his fitness for the tournament, which starts January 20.

Namibia play their first match under Dutch coach Arie Schans, who has had less than a month to work with the team. His predecessor, the Zambian Ben Bamchuile died at the end of last month, casting a shadow over Namibia's preparations.

All but two of the 16 finalists will play warm-up internationals over the next three weeks before the tournament kick off.

Cameroon had planned a match against Kenya in Nairobi but the post-election violence in the east African country have seen the Indomitable Lions switch their preparations to Burkina Faso. To date, they have no matches planned and will not have played an international since their last qualifier in September.

Guinea play no warm-up internationals but will get match practice against club opposition in Marbella, Spain, where they will begin preparations next week. Among their planned opponents are Fiorentina and Borussia Dortmund. Heady competition, no?

Nigeria and Sudan are training in Malaga while Benin have gone to Brazil for a 10-day camp before heading to Burkina Faso for a warm-up match against Senegal on Jan. 17.

Angola have been in Portugal since before Christmas for their preparations.
Tunisia host Zambia at Rades on Sunday before a flurry of fixtures next week, which sees matches in Abu Dhabi, Spain, Portugal, Morocco and South Africa.

Under FIFA rules for continental championships, clubs must release their players for preparations a full two weeks before the start of the tournament, setting Sunday as the deadline for squad members to join up.

But there are likely to be some exceptions, notably Ghana's Michael Essien who officials said would likely be allowed to play for Chelsea against Tottenham Hotspur on Jan.14. Also, Samuel Eto'o will stay with Barcelona until mid-week next week, playing in a Kings Cup match before meeting up with his Cameroon teammates.

It's almost here, people. I'm excited!!

South Africa to Play in Qualifiers for 2010 Cup

According to my eyes and ears in Africa, Mr. Mark Gleeson (respected Reuters journalist and African football scribe, a.k.a. Man I'd Like to Become One Day) South Africa will become the first World Cup hosts in more than 70 years to participate in its own qualifying competition, although they will play in the finals regardless of their performance, officials confirmed on Tuesday.

The African qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup are to be combined with the preliminaries for the 2010 African Cup of Nations earlier the same year, necessitating the participation of South Africa, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said.

While all the other African nations involved in the qualifiers will be vying for spots in both tournaments, World Cup hosts South Africa will only be chasing a berth in the 2010 African Nations Cup being held in Angola.

Similarly, Angola will be only trying to qualify for a World Cup berth.

For the first time, Africa has a full quota of 53 entries for the 2010 preliminaries, which will be divided into three stages.
The bottom 10 African teams in the FIFA rankings have been drawn into five preliminary round ties, which are to be played over two legs in October and November.
FIFA says the draw has been conducted and is expected to be announced in the next days. (We'll have that news for you once it comes in, so check back!)

The five winners will join 43 other countries in the first group phase, where the teams will be divided into 12 groups of four teams each at the World Cup draw in Durban on Nov. 25.

They will play six rounds of matches through 2008 with the 12 group winners plus eight best runners-up progressing to the last league stage.

The 20 remaining teams are to be divided into a final stage of five groups of four, with the resultant group winners going onto the World Cup in South Africa and the top three in each group qualifying for the 2010 Nations Cup finals in Angola.

Should South Africa finish top of their group, the runner-up would qualify for the 2010 World Cup, officials told Reuters.
The CAF also used the 2006 World Cup qualifiers to determine its 16 Nations Cup finalists in Egypt the same year.

Africa are to have six teams at the World Cup finals for the first time.
The only previous World Cup host forced to play a preliminary tie was Italy in 1934. They played a single match against Greece just months before the finals, winning 4-0 in Milan before the Greeks withdrew from the return match.