Ghana turns to Brazil for World Cup 2010

Ghana President John Agykum Kuor has signed an agreement with the Brazilian President to improve the standard of football in Ghana via the hiring of coaches and use of their technical knowledge.

Ghana's foreign affairs minister, Nana Akuffo Addo said:

“We all know what happened to us at the World Cup and the very good performance that our people made. I think that the possibility of Brazilian coaches helping our team in the years ahead, it would make a lot of sense as we approach Johannesburg 2010.“We can realistically look forward to participating in that competition and also doing much better than we did this time. These are part of the arrangement that have been made.”

Source: African News Dimension

World Cup 2010 Stadia

When South Africa won the 2010 Fifa World Cup™ they presented 13 stadia as potential match venues. Of these seven only needed minor improvements and three were due to be built.

Currently it is expected that only 10 will be used which compares to 20 in Korea / Japan 2002 and 12 in Germany 2006.

Here's the list that was set out at the presentation stage. We'll try and refine it asap.

1) Kings Park Stadium - Durban
Inauguration: Sep. 2007
Capacity: 60,000

2) Ellis Park Stadium - Johannesburg
Club: KaizerChiefs
Inauguration: June 2005
Capacity: 60,000

3) Soccer City City - Johannesburg
Inauguration: April 2007
Capacity: 94,700

4) Newlands - Cape Town
Club: Ajax Cape Town
Inauguration: November 2007
Capacity: 40,000

5) Loftus Versfeld - Pretoria
Club: Sundowns FC
Inauguration: April 2005
Capacity: 45,000

6) Free State Stadium - Bloemfontein
Inauguration: June 2007
Capacity: 40,000

7) Rainbow Junction - Pretoria
Inauguration: November 2007
Capacity: 41,000

8) Port Elizaeth Stadium - Port Elizabeth
Inauguration: June 2007
Capacity: 49,500

9) Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace - Rustenburg
Inauguration: November 2005
Capacity: 40,000 seats

10) Oppenheimer Stadion - Orkney
Inauguration: April 2007
Capacity: 40,000

11) Kimberley Stadium - Kimberley
Inauguration: June 2005
Capacity: 40,000

12) Mbombela Stadium - Nelspruit
Inauguration: June 2007
Capacity: 40,000

13) Peter Mokaba Stadium - Polokwane
Inauguration: April 2007
Capacity: 40,000

The above map was created by Kwh.

South Africa 2010 World Cup News

Here we'll collate all the news for the Fifa World Cup ™ in South Africa in 2010.

• Ghana turns to Brazil for World Cup 2010 - July 21st 2006
• World Cup 2010 Stadia - July 8th 2006
• Buy World Cup 2010 Tickets - July 8th 2006
• South Africa 2010 World Cup Logo Unveiled - July 8th 2006

Buy World Cup 2010 Tickets

At the time of writing we've not finished the 2006 World Cup, but I thought other people would be interested to know the time lines for the FIFA 2010 World Cup™ tickets.

Obviously nothing's finalised yet. But here's what we could expect to see:

2007 - The ticketing policies should be defined and how the tickets are to be allocated will be released;
2008 - This year will see the ticket packages agreed, every national FA would estimate their ticket requirements and the sales of the preferntial tickets could begin;
2009 - Ticket sales to the general public should begin;
2010 - The tickets should be sent out.

South Africa 2010 World Cup Logo Unveiled

The World Cup in 2010 will be the first to be hosted in African Continent and South African President Thabo Mbeki unveiled on Friday in Berlin the logo for the 2010 tournament.

At the party Mbeki commented at the"We come from a country where football is not simply a game but an enduring passion ... We come from a place where our hearts beat in unison as we celebrate a shared destiny and love for the beautiful game ... It is a challenge we will win with flying colors," he said. "We said we will host in 2010 the most successful FIFA World Cup and we will keep that promise."

The slogan for the tournament is a tad unusual: "Win with Africa in Africa" - I'm not entirely sure what its supposed to mean.

Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan commented:

"The World Cup is an event which illustrates the benefit of cross-pollinization between peoples and countries. More and more national teams now welcome coaches from other countries. More and more players represent clubs away from home between World Cups. They all bring new ways of thinking and playing. Everybody wins. Everybody wins by that cross-pollinization."

When you look at the logo you may realise that the background image is actually a map of Africa - it took me a while to work it out!

Fifa World Cup Logo ©2006 FIFA