World Cup South Africa 2010

The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world cup for football teams of the national men's associations. It took place in South Africa from June 11 to July 11, 2010. The bidding process to host the tournament finals was only open to African countries. In 2004, the international football federation FIFA selected South Africa over Egypt and Morocco to be the first African nation to host the final.

The matches were played in 10 stadiums in nine host cities across the country and the opening and final were played at the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa's largest city. Thirty-two teams were selected to participate in a worldwide qualifying tournament that began in August 2007. In the first round of the tournament final, the teams competed in round-robin groups of four teams for points, with the top two teams in each group going through. These 16 teams advanced to the knockout stage, where three rounds of play decided which teams would participate in the final.

In the final, Spain, the European champion, defeated the third time losing finalists the Netherlands 1-0 after extra time to win their first world title. Spain became the eighth country to win the tournament and the first European country to win a World Cup organized outside its own continent: all previous World Cups held outside of Europe had been won by South American countries. They are also the only national team since 1978 to win a World Cup after losing a match in the group stage. As a result of their victory, Spain represented the world in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. Host nation South Africa and both 2006 World Cup finalists Italy and France were all eliminated in the first round of the tournament. It was the first time the hosts had been knocked out in the first round. New Zealand was the lone unbeaten team in the tournament with three draws, but was also eliminated in the first round.