Brazil in the World Cup 2010

The bidding process for the World Cups of 2018 and 2022 gained a strong boost today, December 4th 2009; see reports by the BBC and USA Today.

FIFA has not announced the start of an official process, but bidding countries are taking advantage of the presence of delegates from all over the world in the final draw for the 2010 World Cup to start promoting themselves.

Each of the ten bidders exhibited a four-minute movie describing the potentials of each country, in a giant tent in a government residence in Cape Town, just a few hours before the draw of the 2010 Cup.

Candidate countries for the 2018 Cup or 2022 Cup are Australia, England, Russia, USA (who hosted the 1994 World Cup), plus joint bids bid Portugal-Spain and Netherlands-Belgium. Indonesia, Qatar and South Korea are bidders for 2022. Japan (who was host as recently as 2002) is bidding for 2018, but is considering to withdraw and concentrate efforts for the 2022 Cup.

Since 2002, a rotation system across continents has been in place, and the Cups have been in Asia, Europe, Africa and South America. FIFA, however, already announced that the rotation ends in 2018:

As from 2018, the hosting of the FIFA World Cup™ will cease to be rotated. Under the chairmanship of President Joseph S. Blatter, the FIFA Executive Committee today – 29 October 2007 – unanimously passed a decision to abandon the principle (originally introduced in the year 2000) of rotating the men’s World Cup from continent to continent. The confederations whose associations have hosted the two preceding World Cups will not be eligible to bid, however. Consequently, all the associations from Asia, North and Central America and the Caribbean, Oceania and Europe may bid for the 2018 FIFA World Cup™.

FIFA will announce the host of the 2018 World Cup in December of 2010.

Brazil is already defined as the host of the 2014 World Cup. FIFA announced Brazil in October 2007, but the process was easier: by force of the rotation across continents, the Cup should happen in South America and, after Colombia withdrew, Brazil remained the sole bidding country.

FIFA announced today the top seeds for the final draw which will happen on December 4th. The top seed countries are: South Africa (host), Brazil, Spain, Italy, Germany, England, Argentina and the Netherlands.

There was no surprise; as commented at this post, FIFA had pre-announced that the seeds would probably follow the ranking of October 2009, as it indeed happened. The reason why France is not a seed is because they ranked 9th in October, and not because of the controversial match against Ireland.

FIFA also announced the rules of the final draw.

The 32 countries will be divided in 4 pots of eight countries each.

South Africa will seed Group A. The other seeds will be put in Pot 1 and draw across the other groups (Brazil expressed preference for groups B or G).

Then, a country of each pot will be drawn to compose each group. This avoids two countries from a same pot to be placed in a same group. Also, if two countries of the same continent (excepted Europe) are drawn to the same group, the draw is repeated.

Composition of pots:

Pot 1: seed countries

Pot 2: Australia, Japan, Korea DPR (North Korea), Korea Republic (South Korea), Honduras, Mexico, USA and New Zealand.

Pot 3: Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

Pot 4: Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.

Update, December 2nd: FIFA announced the seeds.

The  draw of the first stage of the World Cup 2010 will be conducted on December 4th; this draw will  will determine the eight groups (with four countries each) and its distribution across the host cities.

It is well known that, like in past Cups, the draw will be somewhat directed, so as to avoid that two or three favorite countries had to face off in the first stage, so eliminating one or more of them; if it were no so, it could be possible to have a group with Spain, Brazil, Italy and England in the first stage, and only two of them would progress.

There are several rules to govern the draw, and one of the most important is the definition of the seed countries. Eight seeds will be chosen, and each will be put in a different group, so avoiding a match between them in the first stage.

Today, nobody knows which countries are seeds. In a note to the media, FIFA said:

The detailed criteria to determine the seeded teams for the Final Draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ will be confirmed at the next meeting of the Organising Committee for the FIFA World Cup™ in Cape Town on 2 December 2009 (and announced at a press conference following the meeting).

If the criteria to determine the seeded teams were to include, as in the past, the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, then it would be the October 2009 edition of this ranking which would be considered, and this for sporting reasons. In fact, using the November 2009 edition would create an uneven situation, specifically for the European Zone, where the play-offs involving the eight best runners-up led to an imbalance in the number of qualification matches played between the teams.

So, if the ranking of October 2009 is to be used to determine the seeds, these would be: South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England (in case the most recent ranking of November were used, then  Portugal and France would be seeds, and Argentina and England wouldn’t).

By not being a seed, it is certain for a country that they will have to face one of the major countries in one of the first three matches. It used to be the case that seeds could stay in the same host city for more time (so, with less travelling), but now that matches are dispersed across the host cities, this is no longer the case.

Probably the main advantage of being a seed is start the match knowing that you are considered one of the strongest candidates to championship.

The blog about the World Cup in Brazil has attracted several people looking for “jobs in Brazil during the World Cup Brazil 2014” and similars.

It is a necessity for the host country to find skilled professionals to work in a major event such a World Cup. And as it is difficult to have large pools of professionals to perform in just a short term event, it is a tradition to invite volunteers (both from the home country and from abroad) to help in the works.

So, let’s take a look at how FIFA and the South Africa Committee is handling this matter.

On September 2008, FIFA and the Local Organising Committee (LOC) issued a first call for volunteers, aimed at only South African citizens; until September of 2009, right before the Confederations Cup, a total of 35,000 candidates had volunteered, and a number of 4,030 were chosen “to assist in operational areas such as accreditation, administration, information technology, language support, logistics, transport, information services, media and marketing”.

On July 20th 2009, FIFA and LOC issued a call for volunteers from all over the world. On the occasion, it was stated: “From ushering people to their seats, to assisting the media and foreign language speakers, welcoming people at the airport and driving guests around, it is the volunteers that actually make the tournament happen.”

The paragraph defined what is expected from volunteers: speak languages, friendly personality, willing to make the Cup a successful event (for example, an University student who plays football, speaks English and Chinese besides Japanese, and has an easy going personality, will have strong chances to be admitted as volunteer).

FIFA provided a form (not available any more) for applications. All applications were examined by the Committee, and potential candidates were called for an interview, in person if South Americans, online if foreigners.

And what would a volunteer gain in return? Volunteers would not get paid, would not get free access to matches. From the FIFA website:

What will I receive from the OC and Host City as a volunteer?
The OC and Host City will offer no financial remuneration, but volunteers will receive meals while at work. Over and above the tournament-specific training, volunteers are afforded an opportunity to participate in the world’s largest sporting event, a certificate of acknowledgement for participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, invaluable work experience and an official 2010 FIFA World Cup™ volunteer uniform. You will also get a once in a lifetime opportunity to build friendships with people of different cultures, races, backgrounds, ages and nationalities.

What will NOT be provided to me as a volunteer?
• Accommodation will not be provided.
• Fuel allowance will not be provided.
• No travel will be paid to get to the Host City where you have been selected to be a volunteer.
• The OC will also not pay for travel, accommodation and Visa for International Volunteers that wish to participate as volunteer during the 2010 FIFA World Cup™

Of course, besides these volunteer opportunities, there will be several jobs available in the private sectors. For job opportunities in Brazil in 2014, read this post.

A few days ago, after the last matches of the Qualifying, all 32 countries which will participate of the finals of World Cup 2010 were known. On November 20th, two days after  the end of the Qualifyings, FIFA updated its ranking of the World teams. Below, a screenshot of the 33 best ranked teams.

It is no surprise that most of the qualified countries are at the top of the ranking.

Spain regained the top position, which they occupied for most of 2009; Spain lost briefly the leading after being beat by United States in the semifinals of the Confederation Cup 2009. Brazil is back to second position; the difference between Brazil and Spain was of just three points in the previous ranking; since, Brazil won England and Oman, whereas Spain won Argentina and Austria – FIFA assigned 33 more points to the Spaniards than to the Brazilians.

Out of the ten top ranked, only Croatia (the tenth) is out of the World Cup. Between 11th and 20th, only Russia (13th) is out. Between 21st and 32th, the following countries are out: Czech Republic (23rd), Ukraine (24th), Israel (25th), Bulgaria (27th), Egypt (29th), Norway (31st) and Romania (32nd).

That means that there are nine countries which are not ranked amongst the best 32 in the world, but are going to South Africa anyway. Eight of them would be: Slovenia (33rd), Slovakia (34th), Ghana (37th), Honduras (38th), Japan (43rd), South Korea (52nd), New Zealand (77th) and North Korea (84th).

What’s the worst country (according to FIFA ranking) to participate of the World Cup in 2010? South Africa, host country, ranked 86th.

FIFA is making over three million paid tickets available for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. One million tickets have been allocated to FIFA commercial affiliates, hospitality providers, National Confederations and broadcast outlets, and the rest will be available to the general public.

The only official channel to buy tickets online for the World Cup 2010 is through the FIFA website; see prices of tickets.

Sale of tickets online is happening in five phases (actually, six phases, if we consider phase zero below):

Phase zero: FIFA published the schedule of matches of the World Cup 2010, with dates and places; each match is given a number; teams are still unknown (except for the opening match, which will have South Africa as one of the players).
People can buy tickets either individually for each match (identified by the respective number) or by sets of tickets for matches of a country (FIFA called these sets TSTS, Team Specific Ticket Series). So, for example, an English fan can buy a TSTS for all three matches of England in the first stage of the Cup, or a TSTS covering the three initial matches plus the next round, or even a TSTS for all seven matches.

Phase one: from 20 February 2009 to 31 March 2009 (closed). All people interested in tickets filled an application order (online or printed and sent through mail). Result of the applications was announced on April 15th 2009. For any given match or TSTS, if the number of applicants was lower than the number of tickets available, the purchase was confirmed; if there were more applicants than tickets, then a draw had to be conducted to determine the purchasers (the date of application is not relevant for the draw – submitting early or late makes no difference for the draw).

Phase two: from 4 May 2009 to 20 November 2009. Ticket applications submitted during this stage will be processed, subject to availability, on a first come first served basis; there is no draw involved. (Update, December 5th 2009: FIFA informed that during phases one and two 674,403 tickets were sold – 90% of tickets made available).

Phase three: from 5 December 2009 to 22 January 2010. This phase follows the same rules of phase one. The draw to select applicants will happen on February 10th 2010. The (big) difference between phase one and three is that the later will happen after the final draw of groups, and hence all matches will be known.

Phase four: 9 February 2010 to 7 April 2010. Same rules as phase two: tickets sold subject to availability on a first come first served basis.

Phase five: 15 April 2010 to 11 July 2010 (World Cup kick off is on June 11th, final match in on July 11 2010. Ticket applications will be processed on a first come first served basis, however Ticket transactions will be conducted immediately at the point of sale.

Besides these tickets for sale online, FIFA will distribute a number of tickets to all Federations which will play the finals of the World Cup, and yet more tickets to the official sponsors; Federations and sponsors will inform later how they will distribute those tickets.

FIFA has signed agreements with travel operators from around the world to sell packages to South Africa which include the tickets (the tickets are still sold by FIFA, not by the operator).