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This year’s event will be the nineteenth FIFA World Cup. The World Cup is the foremost tournament of international football, also referred to as soccer in some regions. The World Cup 2010 is scheduled to come about from June 11 through July 11. This year the competition will be held in South Africa.

The process of qualifying in the World Cup 2010 began in August of 2007 and did not end until November of last year. All but four of the two hundred eight national FIFA teams took their chances in the qualification process. The World Cup 2010 is equivalent to the Summer Olympics in 2008 as a sporting event hosting the most nations competing.

The World Cup 2010 will be the first year the tournament has been hosted by a nation in Africa. The all-African process of bidding contributed to South Africa being selected as the host nation this year over Egypt and Morocco. Following this decision, the Oceania Football Confederation remains as the only confederation that has not yet played host to the FIFA World Cup tournament.

The defending champions this year is the team from Italy. Also favored to do well in the tournament this year are the teams from Spain, Brazil, England, Germany and Argentina. However, a few of the qualifying teams are least likely to win the World Cup this year, including:

1. South Africa
   Bafana Bafana is the South Africa national football team. The South Africa national football team performs under the control of the South African Football Association. After being banned by FIFA, the South Africa team returned to the field less than a decade ago. In 2009, South Africa hosted the Confederation Cup and this year it will host the World Cup, making it the first African nation to host the tournament. The team has made it to the World Cup twice, but has never passed the first round.
2. New Zealand
   Nicknamed “All Whites”, the New Zealand national football team is controlled by New Zealand Football. As the nickname implies, the national association football team of New Zealand plays on an all-white strip. The New Zealand team competed in the FIFA World Cup of 1982 in Spain. The process to qualify for the competition was long and they beat out Singapore in sudden death to win a spot in the tournament. The team played three matches and lost all three.
3. Slovenia
   The Football Association of Slovenia controls the national football team of Slovenia. In 1992, the team played their first match since the split in 1991 of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Prior to the split, the players were members of the Yugoslavia national football team. In 2002, the Slavenia national football team beat out Romania to qualify for the World Cup. However, they left pointless in the finals. The team failed to qualify for the tournament in 2006, yet beat out Russia for a chance in the 2010 World Cup.
4. Japan
   The current coach for the Japan national football team, which is controlled by the Japan Football Association, is Takeshi Okada. The media and fans of the Japanese team commonly refer to the team as “Soccer Nippon Daihyō”, which roughly translates to Japanese representatives of soccer. However, the team from Japan does not have an official nickname. The team first competed in the World Cup in 1998, losing all three matches. In 2002, the team made it to the sixteenth round, finishing group play winless.
5. Ghana
   Commonly known as the “Black Stars”, the Ghana national football team plays under the control of the Ghana Football Association. The Ghana team failed to qualify for the World Cup until just four years ago. In 2006, the Ghana national football team made it to the second round of the competition in Germany.

Dena White creates posts about searching for a master of sports management.