2010 FIFA World Cup

The 2010 FIFA World Cup was hosted by South Africa. It was the 19th edition of a football tournament held every four years under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). 32 national teams took part and Spain, the winners, took home a reported $30,000,000.

Initially, there were doubts about South Africa's ability to host the tournament as it appeared that construction and preparation of the venues would be completed on time. In the end, there was general praise for the efforts of the host nation. There were complaints about the official FIFA match ball, the Jabulani, created by Adidas, which some players criticised for unpredictability. There was also concern about the displacement of disadvantaged persons living around competition venues, an issue which often occurs during preparations for international events and is not unique to this World Cup.

FIFA itself came under fire from several controversial refereeing decisions, most notoriously a handball from French captain Thierry Henry in the France-Ireland game that delivered a World Cup berth to France, despite international outcry and an official protest from Ireland, and a series of judgmental blunders and inconsistent decisions during the current tournament.

With respect to the judging controversy, FIFA's original position was that there was nothing wrong with the present system. In the wake of continued egregious errors in judgment during the competition, notably the denying of a goal to English midfielder Frank Lampard during the England-Germany match, FIFA agreed to review the possibility of using electronic technology.

A playoff between the losers of the two semi-finals determined third (Germany) and fourth (Uruguay) places. The finals were held on Sunday 11th July 2010 in Soccer City, (the main venue, a football-specific stadium in Johannesburg), and Spain defeated Netherlands one-nil, after Andrés Iniesta scored in the 116th minute, to win the World Cup for the first time ever.