2010 FIFA World Cup

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The 2010 FIFA World Cup was an international Soccer tournament held in South Africa and won by Spain.^[1]

Bidding contests for FIFA World Cups are extremely competitive. After Germany was awarded the 2006 tournament, Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA made a personal pledge to ensure that the following tournament would be held in Africa, a continent which had never previously hosted the World Cup but which was central to FIFA's aim of growing the sport globally.

Four bids were submitted, by Egypt, Libya & Tunisia, Morocco and South Africa. Libya and Tunisia withdrew their bid, and in 2004 South Africa beat Morocco and Egypt to be declared the 2010 host.

In order to host the tournament, South Africa has built five new stadiums, and upgraded four others.

Competing Nations[edit]

32 national teams competed in the 2010 World Cup. South Africa, as hosts, were guaranteed a spot. Each regional confederation ran a qualifying tournament to determine which of its member nations would attend the finals in South Africa, with the qualifiers being:

Africa: Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa (hosts)
Asia: Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea
Europe: Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland
North America: Honduras, Mexico, United States
South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay
Oceania: New Zealand

Outcome[edit]

The 2010 World Cup saw three European teams in the first three places: it was won by Spain, with the Netherlands as runner-ups and Germany in the third place. Uruguay was the South American team which had the best result, ending up in the fourth place. Diego Forlán was proclaimed the best player of the competition; Thomas Müller, David Villa, Wesley Sneijder and Diego Forlan were tied as top-scorers, with 5 goals each. Müller was awarded the Golden Boot because of his three assists.

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