Today it all starts to get a bit serious and the countdown (currently 188 days) truly begins. For fans of The Beautiful Game, life basically stops for a little under a month once every 4 years. It is the most watched sporting even in the world (well ahead of the Olympics). In 2006, 300 million people watched the World Cup Draw, with the cumulative total for the tournament itself at well over 25 billion people, and with over 700 million watching the final itself.
Coverage of the draw for the 2010 World Cup Group Stage is on ESPN2 starting at noon today. Of the 200+ countries that started playing in the Qualification Rounds well over a year ago, the 32 Qualifying Teams (with regions and current world ranking) are as follows. Asterisks denote the number of World Cups each country has won.
From Europe
Spain (1)
Netherlands (3)
Italy**** (4)
Portugal (5)
Germany*** (6)
France* (7)
England* (9)
Greece (12)
Switzerland (18)
Serbia (20)
Denmark (26)
Slovenia (33)
Slovakia (34)
From Northern and Central America
USA (14)
Mexico (15)
Honduras (38)
From South America
Brazil***** (2)
Argentina** (8)
Chile (17)
Uruguay** (19)
Paraguay (30)
From Africa
Cameroon (11)
Ivory Coast (16)
Nigeria (22)
Algeria (28)
Ghana (37)
South Africa (86)
From Asia and Oceania
Australia (21)
Japan (43)
South Korea (52)
New Zealand (77)
North Korea (84)
I'll update with details of the draw as they become available. This world cup will be particularly interesting for 3 main reasons from my POV:
1. This will be the 19th World Cup, but it's the first time the tournament has been played in Africa, and only the 3rd time it has been played outside Europe or Central/South America, the other 2 being the 1994 (USA) and 2002 (Japan and South Korea) tournaments.
2. When playing outside their home continent, only one team has won the world cup - Brazil. In fact, Brazil has done it 3 times (Sweden in 1958, USA in 1994 and Japan / South Korea in 2002).
3. When any nation wins the tournament 3 times, they get to keep the trophy. This happened when Brazil won the original trophy (the Jules Rimet Trophy) outright in 1970. After that, a new trophy (pictured below) was introduced. Since the first tournament that the new trophy was used (1974), 4 teams have won the World Cup twice each: Brazil (1994, 2002), Germany (1974, 1990), Italy (1982, 2006) and Argentina (1978, 1986 cheating bastards). If any of those 4 teams wins in 2010, they keep the trophy.
FIFA.com - Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)
FIFA World Cup - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coverage of the draw for the 2010 World Cup Group Stage is on ESPN2 starting at noon today. Of the 200+ countries that started playing in the Qualification Rounds well over a year ago, the 32 Qualifying Teams (with regions and current world ranking) are as follows. Asterisks denote the number of World Cups each country has won.
From Europe
Spain (1)
Netherlands (3)
Italy**** (4)
Portugal (5)
Germany*** (6)
France* (7)
England* (9)
Greece (12)
Switzerland (18)
Serbia (20)
Denmark (26)
Slovenia (33)
Slovakia (34)
From Northern and Central America
USA (14)
Mexico (15)
Honduras (38)
From South America
Brazil***** (2)
Argentina** (8)
Chile (17)
Uruguay** (19)
Paraguay (30)
From Africa
Cameroon (11)
Ivory Coast (16)
Nigeria (22)
Algeria (28)
Ghana (37)
South Africa (86)
From Asia and Oceania
Australia (21)
Japan (43)
South Korea (52)
New Zealand (77)
North Korea (84)
I'll update with details of the draw as they become available. This world cup will be particularly interesting for 3 main reasons from my POV:
1. This will be the 19th World Cup, but it's the first time the tournament has been played in Africa, and only the 3rd time it has been played outside Europe or Central/South America, the other 2 being the 1994 (USA) and 2002 (Japan and South Korea) tournaments.
2. When playing outside their home continent, only one team has won the world cup - Brazil. In fact, Brazil has done it 3 times (Sweden in 1958, USA in 1994 and Japan / South Korea in 2002).
3. When any nation wins the tournament 3 times, they get to keep the trophy. This happened when Brazil won the original trophy (the Jules Rimet Trophy) outright in 1970. After that, a new trophy (pictured below) was introduced. Since the first tournament that the new trophy was used (1974), 4 teams have won the World Cup twice each: Brazil (1994, 2002), Germany (1974, 1990), Italy (1982, 2006) and Argentina (1978, 1986 cheating bastards). If any of those 4 teams wins in 2010, they keep the trophy.
FIFA.com - Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)
FIFA World Cup - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
