World Cup Footie

We posted in January that it looked as if England were going to be the best supported team in South Africa during the World Cup later this year, but it turns out, we might be wrong. Numbers recently released show that residents in America had purchased the most tickets.

As of the third ticketing phase, managed by FIFA, 2.1 million tickets had been sold for the event and of that number 107,576 had gone to America and England were second highest with 63,835 tickets sold.

England may have beaten the African champions 3-1 last Wednesday night but it seems fans and bookies have been left equally unimpressed by the performance in the first hour of the game.

England went into the second half 1-0 down with several players underperforming. But after several subs in the second half, things began to pick up. Peter Crouch ended up netting twice and Shaun Wright Phillips also scored to secure the victory.

Every member of the Spanish World Cup squad travelling to South Africa later this year will pick up a cool €550,000 if they win the World Cup.

This is the largest known bonus figure for any squad and more than double what the Spanish squad won when winning the Euro 2008.

With 99 days to go until the 2010 World Cup kicks off, a people-inspired online ad contest called Get Wildly Creative About South Africa is launching as part of a major branding initiative being hosted by South Africa.

It is our job to promote things like this, so this is exactly what the post is about, becasue we love South Africa and we love football. All things added up - this need a little promotion.

Over the past couple of days we have seen a few of the World Cup contenders strut their stuff in pre-World Cup matches with managers trying new ideas and new players all with one eye on potential success in South Africa in 99 days.

Not all teams are playing but some are and some are still to play but a summary of some of the results are below.We will be updating the site with team pages starting next week where you will get information on all World Cup matches and matches taking place in South Africa during the event.

The World Cup kicks off in exactly 100 days and if you were planning on going, you can still get your hands on tickets but every day more and more are getting sold and they are expected to sell out.

The event kicks off June 11th in Johannesburg and Cape Town and with the final and both semi-finals already sold out, the 600,000 tickets still available represent just under 10,000 per match - a big number.

This week’s World Cup 2010 warm up is England v Egypt and it is a perfect opportunity for Capello to test some of the less experienced England players alongside the regulars. His decisions may have been made a little easier with several key players missing.

The most high profile position at the moment is the left back position. Ashley Cole is injured and Wayne Bridge has made himself unavailable for selection so that leaves us with Leighton Baines and Stephen Warnock to battle it out for the deputy spot in that position. Both players will more than likely get a chance to play on Wednesday.

The British Consulate in South Africa have staged a mock major disaster to test responses during the 2010 World Cup.

Staff at the British High Commission in South Africa, along with Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials in London, FIFA and local police took part in the demonstration.

Who is England’s best player? At least nine out of ten people would surely answer Wayne Rooney and it is very hard to make a case for England at the World Cup 2010 without their star man. If any evidence was needed that Rooney has improved yet again this season it is his two headed goals against AC Milan as heading was previously his weakest point.

In April last year, FIFA TV Director Niclas Ericson confirmed that the option to watch World Cup matches on your mobile was going to become a reality and now, the BBC have confirmed that you'll be able to watch these matches with an iPhone or iPod.

For the moment, the application is only available for Apple devices but it is expected that similar versions will be made available for Blackberry and Google Android "smartphones".

Supporters travelling to South Africa later this year may be forced to use camp sites as an alternative to the ever increasing price for a ever decreasing number of hotel rooms in the country.

Independent hotels are increasing their prices, in some cases, every day and what you might get told today could change tomorrow. It is all about supply and demand and nobody can really be blamed. The message is, book early to avoid disappointment and get your rooms at a cheaper price.

Critics are once again questioning South African's ability to host the World Cup after the terrorist attack on the Togolese team bus as it was travelling towards to the Africa Cup of Nations and three people were killed.

FIFA top dog Sepp Blatter has responded citing the ATP tournament in Johannesburg as just another example of how South Africa can stage successful sporting events.

In exactly four months from today the first two matches of the 2010 World Cup will be played and as I write this, the first match, between South Africa and Mexico, to be played in Johannesburg, will be coming to an end and there will either be a very happy country or a very unhappy country.

South Africans all over the world will be glued to the match and it is sure to be a fantastic one full of anticipation and excitement and it will prove to be worth the wait. Mexico will go into the match as favourites but the home nation will fancy their chances.

Spain have nudged ahead of Brazil in the World Rankings to first place and as such have moved ahead of Brazil in the all important bookmakers odds as to who will win the World Cup kicking off in a few months time.

You can get 4/1 on Spain to win at the moment, 5/1 on Brazil and if you are willing to look around, you'll find 6/1 on England. I think one of those teams will win it and I'll give you a little clue; if Fernando Torres is fit, it won't be England. Did I make that too obvious?

The referee list for the World Cup kicking off in June has been released by FIFA.

The full list, it that interests you, can be downloaded from the FIFA website here, but as most of our visitors come from the UK and USA - the English speaking countries, you´ll be interested to know who is representing you.