The 2010 Football World Cup will take place in South Africa. The five countries which bid to hold the tournament were:

• Egypt
• Libya
• Morocco
• South Africa
• Tunisia

FIFA authorities had the idea of giving an African nation the opportunity to host the World Cup for the great development of football reached in this continent shown by the performance of Cameroon, Algeria and Nigeria in FIFA World Cup and other Tournaments like FIFA U-21 World Championship.

On May 8, 2004 Tunisia withdrew their bid when it was made clear that they would not be allowed to co-host with Libya.

On May 15, 2004, FIFA's Executive Committee voted in Zurich by 14 votes to 10 to award the finals to South Africa over Morocco. Egypt received no votes.

Libya had been disqualified from the vote after it made clear it wished to co-host the event rather than hold it on its own. Libya had also asked to be withdrawn from consideration prior to the vote after it refused to let Israel participate there in the event that Libya was chosen as the host of the World Cup.

South Africa will become the sixteenth country to host World Cup matches, and the first African country.

Venues

In 2005, the organisers released a provisional list of 13 venues to be used for the World Cup; the list will be narrowed down to a final selection of ten venues in summer 2006. The 13 venues on the provisional list were:

• Soccer City, Johannesburg-95,462
• Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg-70,000
• Kings Park Stadium, Durban-61,000
• Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria-52,000
• Newlands Stadium, Cape Town-50,000
• Port Elizabeth Stadium, Port Elizabeth-50,000
• Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein-40,000
• Kimberley Stadium, Kimberley-40,000
• Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit-40,000
• Oppenheimer Stadium, Orkney-40,000
• Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane-40,000
• Rainbow Junction, Pretoria-40,000
• Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg-40,000