World Cup 2010 Blog

Tumo Mokone

The decision that Bafana Bafana will play in the qualifying rounds for the 2010 Soccer World Cup somehow made news and caused unnecessary shock this week.

The only reason this information made news in South Africa was because the story was a wire copy from Reuters. It was a case of, because it is from Reuters, then it must be news.

But the South African soccer media should have known better.

The agreement entered into by Fifa and CAF (Confederation of African Football) over the World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations tournaments falling in the same year is simple: there will be one African qualifying tournament for both.

Ahead of 2006 World Cup in Germany, Africa had five qualifying groups, which also had to produce qualifying countries for 2006 ACN in Egypt.

The format is simple: the winners of each group qualify for the World Cup, while the runners-up join the winners in the ACN.

South Africa did not go to Germany as Ghana qualified ahead of us by virtue of winning the group.

While the ACN is played every two years, the World Cup is played on a four-year cycle. Read the rest of this entry »