The 2010 FIFA World Cup also known as (aka) the 19th FIFA World Cup, an international soccer football tournament, is scheduled to take place between June 11 to July 11, 2010 in South Africa, the host nation.

This is a one month long tournament. It will be the first time that the tournament will be hosted by a nation in the Confederation of African Football, leaving the Oceania Football Confederation as the only FIFA Confederation never to have hosted the event. Italy are the 2009 World Cup defending champions, although they do not automatically qualify for the final tournament for 2010.

UPDATE 2: See below for the updated World Cup 2010 Schedules/Fixtures as of December 5, 2009

UPDATE 1: 2010 FIFA World Cup Group Bracket

South Africa, part of the Five African nations who placed bids to host the 2010 World Cup, was chosen as the host for the 2010 World Cup as part of a new policy to rotate the event between football confederations (which was later abandoned in October 2007). The other 4 nations were Egypt, Libya/Tunisia (co-hosting) and Morocco.

With anticipation growing ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™, the official Match Schedule has been released (see below). Games will be played in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Mangaung/Bloemfontein, Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth, Nelspruit, Polokwane, Rustenburg, Tshwane/Pretoria between 11 June and 11 July 2010.

The qualification competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North America), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oceania), and UEFA (Europe) — was allocated a certain number of the 32 places at the tournament. A total of 204 teams entered the qualification process, with South Africa, as the host, qualifying automatically. The first qualification matches were played on 25 August 2007 and qualification concluded on 18 November 2009.

Complete List of Qualified Teams

The following 32 teams qualified for the final tournament, the 2010 FIFA World Cup:

Team	Qualified as	Date qualification was secured
South Africa	Host	15 May 2004
Japan	AFC Fourth Round Group A Runner-up	6 June 2009
Australia	AFC Fourth Round Group A Winner	6 June 2009
Korea Republic	AFC Fourth Round Group B Winner	6 June 2009
Netherlands	UEFA Group 9 Winner	6 June 2009
Korea DPR	AFC Fourth Round Group B Runner-up	17 June 2009
Brazil	CONMEBOL Top 4 finish	5 September 2009
Ghana	CAF Third Round Group D Winners	6 September 2009
England	UEFA Group 6 Winners	9 September 2009
Spain	UEFA Group 5 Winners	9 September 2009
Paraguay	CONMEBOL Top 4 finish	9 September 2009
Côte d’Ivoire	CAF Third Round Group E Winners	10 October 2009
Germany	UEFA Group 4 Winners	10 October 2009
Denmark	UEFA Group 1 Winners	10 October 2009
Serbia	UEFA Group 7 Winners	10 October 2009
Italy	UEFA Group 8 Winners	10 October 2009
Chile	CONMEBOL Top 4 finish	10 October 2009
Mexico	CONCACAF Fourth Round Top 3 finish	10 October 2009
United States	CONCACAF Fourth Round Top 3 finish	10 October 2009
Switzerland	UEFA Group 2 Winners	14 October 2009
Slovakia	UEFA Group 3 Winners	14 October 2009
Argentina	CONMEBOL Fourth Place	14 October 2009
Honduras	CONCACAF Fourth Round Third Place	14 October 2009
New Zealand	OFC v AFC Play-off Winners	14 November 2009
Nigeria	CAF Third Round Group B Winners	14 November 2009
Cameroon	CAF Third Round Group A Winners	14 November 2009
Algeria	CAF Third Round Group C Winners	18 November 2009
Greece	UEFA Play-off Winners	18 November 2009
Slovenia	UEFA Play-off Winners	18 November 2009
Portugal	UEFA Play-off Winners	18 November 2009
France	UEFA Play-off Winners	18 November 2009
Uruguay	CONMEBOL v CONCACAF Play-off Winners	18 November 2009

2010 World Cup schedule

note: All times local (UTC+2). UPDATE as of December 5, 2009

Day	Venue & Time	Stage	Team 1	Result	Team 2
Friday, 11 June	Johannesburg, 16:00	Group A	South Africa	–	Mexico
	Cape Town, 20:30		Uruguay	–	France
Saturday, 12 June	Nelson Mandela Bay / PLZ, 13:30	Group B	Korea Republic	–	Greece
	Johannesburg, 16:00		Argentina	–	Nigeria
	Rustenburg, 20:30	Group C	England	–	USA
Sunday, 13 June	Polokwane, 13:30		Algeria	–	Slovenia
	Tshwane / Pretoria, 16:00	Group D	Serbia	–	Ghana
	Durban, 20:30		Germany	–	Australia
Monday, 14 June	Johannesburg, 13:30	Group E	Netherlands	–	Denmark
	Mangaung / BFN, 16:00		Japan	–	Cameroon
	Cape Town, 20:30	Group F	Italy	–	Paraguay
Tuesday, 15 June	Rustenburg, 13:30		New Zealand	–	Slovakia
	Nelson Mandela Bay / PLZ, 16:00	Group G	Côte d’Ivoire	–	Portugal
	Johannesburg, 20:30		Brazil	–	Korea DPR
Wednesday, 16 June	Nelspruit, 13:30	Group H	Honduras	–	Chile
	Durban, 16:00		Spain	–	Switzerland
	Pretoria, 20:30	Group A	South Africa	–	Uruguay
Thursday, 17 June	Johannesburg, 13:30		Argentina	–	Korea Republic
	Mangaung / BFN, 16:00	Group B	Greece	–	Nigeria
	Polokwane, 20:30		France	–	Mexico
Friday, 18 June	Nelson Mandela Bay / PLZ, 13:30	Group D	Germany	–	Serbia
	Johannesburg, 16:00	Group C	Slovenia	–	USA
	Cape Town, 20:30		England	–	Algeria
Saturday, 19 June	Durban, 13:30	Group D	Netherlands	–	Japan
	Rustenburg, 16:00	Group E	Ghana	–	Australia
	Tshwane / Pretoria, 20:30		Cameroon	–	Denmark
Sunday, 20 June	Mangaung / BFN, 13:30	Group F	Slovakia	–	Paraguay
	Nelspruit, 16:00		Italy	–	New Zealand
	Johannesburg, 20:30	Group G	Brazil	–	Côte d’Ivoire
Monday, 21 June	Cape Town, 13:30		Portugal	–	Korea DPR
	Nelson Mandela Bay / PLZ, 16:00	Group H	Chile	–	Switzerland
	Johannesburg, 20:30		Spain	–	Honduras
Tuesday, 22 June	Mangaung / BFN, 16:00	Group A	France	–	South Africa
	Rustenburg, 16:00		Mexico	–	Uruguay
	Durban, 20:30	Group B	Nigeria	–	Korea Republic
	Polokwane, 20:30		Greece	–	Argentina
Wednesday, 23 June	Tshwane / Pretoria, 16:00	Group C	USA	–	Algeria
	Nelson Mandela Bay / PLZ, 16:00		Slovenia	–	England
	Johannesburg, 20:30	Group D	Ghana	–	Germany
	Nelspruit, 20:30		Australia	–	Serbia
Thursday, 24 June	Johannesburg, 16:00	Group F	Slovakia	–	Italy
	Polokwane, 16:00		Paraguay	–	New Zealand
	Rustenburg, 20:30	Group E	Denmark	–	Japan
	Cape Town, 20:30		Cameroon	–	Netherlands
Friday, 25 June	Durban, 16:00	Group G	Portugal	–	Brazil
	Nelspruit, 16:00		Korea DPR	–	Côte d’Ivoire
	Tshwane / Pretoria, 20:30	Group H	Chile	–	Spain
	Mangaung / BFN, 20:30		Switzerland	–	Honduras
Saturday, 26 June	Nelson Mandela Bay / PLZ, 16:00	Round of 16 – Match 1	1A	–	2B
	Rustenburg, 20:30	Round of 16 – Match 3	1C	–	2D
Sunday, 27 June	Mangaung / BFN, 16:00	Round of 16 – Match 4	1D	–	2C
	Johannesburg, 20:30	Round of 16 – Match 2	1B	–	2A
Monday, 28 June	Durban, 16:00	Round of 16 – Match 5	1E	–	2F
	Johannesburg, 20:30	Round of 16 – Match 7	1G	–	2H
Tuesday, 29 June	Tshwane / Pretoria, 16:00	Round of 16 – Match 6	1F	–	2E
	Cape Town, 20:30	Round of 16 – Match 8	1H	–	2G
Wednesday, 30 June	Rest days
Thursday, 01 July
Friday, 02 July	Nelson Mandela Bay / PLZ, 16:00	Quarter-final C	5	–	7
	Johannesburg, 20:30	Quarter-final A	1	–	3
Saturday, 03 July	Cape Town, 16:00	Quarter-final B	2	–	4
	Johannesburg, 20:30	Quarter-final D	6	–	8
Sunday, 04 July	Rest days
Monday, 05 July
Tuesday, 06 July	Cape Town, 20:30	Semi-final I	A	–	C
Wednesday, 07 July	Durban, 20:30	Semi-final II	B	–	D
Thursday, 08 July	Rest days
Friday, 09 July
Saturday, 10 July	Nelson Mandela Bay / PLZ, 20:30	Third place play-off	Loser I	–	Loser II
Sunday, 11 July	Johannesburg, 20:30	FINAL	Winner I	–	Winner II

You can also download the original PDF of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ Match Schedule at the link provided.

HOW TO WATCH 2010 WORLD CUP LIVE?

To all soccer fans out there, if you can’t afford to go to South Africa to see the games LIVE, you can watch World Cup 2010 Live for free via online streaming video on some live streaming sites such as Justin.TV and Ustream.TV. So, come and Let us all watch World Cup 2010 Live Stream online. You can also watch World Cup 2010 Live through your local cable TV provider, so check their cable TV listings for schedule.

Be updated and visit this post regularly for more updates.

FIFA World Cup Latest News

References:

Wikipedia – 2010 FIFA World Cup
FIFA.com