The who’s who of world soccer converged on Durban’s International Convention Centre (ICC) on Sunday for the 2010 preliminary draw.
A rumble echoed through the centre as England were drawn in the same group as Croatia — the team that recently knocked England out of Euro 2008.
President Thabo Mbeki and Fifa president Sepp Blatter arrived together, strolling up up the red carpet ahead of a glittering ceremony that saw Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour take the stage. Not everything went smoothly however, and a video presentation was marred by the loss of sound for about 30 seconds.
Blatter said: ”Why was such a decision [for Africa] possible? It was nothing else but justice to a continent that has given so much to football by the footballers, by the clubs, by the national teams in the different competitions, but especially the footballers.
”So give back something to Africa. And this is what we want to give back to Africa,” he said.
As former Leeds captain Lucas Radebe drew South Africa, there were rumblings throughout the hall as those assembled realised that SA would face Nigeria in its bid to qualify for the African Nations Cup.
Before the draw began, Irvin Khoza, chairperson of the South African Local Organising Committee, unveiled the slogan for the 2010 World Cup.
”We have decided that the slogan of this, the first World Cup on the African continent, should be ‘Celebrate Africa’s humanity”’.
Apart from N’Dour, South African group Freshly Ground and the Three Tenors also performed.
The African zone had 12 groups with four teams each. The group winners and the eight best runners-up would advance to the next stage where the teams would again be put in to groups. Four teams again made up a group, of which there would be five.
The winners of each group would qualify for the 2010 World Cup.
For the African Cup, the top three teams of each group would advance to the 16-team tournament to be held in Angola.
This would be Bafana Bafana’s final preparation for one of the world’s biggest sporting events. – Sapa