If You are thinking about going to the World Cup this year, you will have realised it’s cost could be quite high. Adèle Lenk, looks at the possibilities of saving a small fortune by using basic camping facilities at the campsites in South Africa, close to where all the matches will be held.

2010 FIFA WORLD CUP SOUTH AFRICA

As we all know by now this year is the FIFA World Cup, and it’s being held in South Africa. Next to the 2012 Olympics, the FIFA World Cup is the hype and topic of most peoples’ conversations these days.

Now I myself, and I’m sorry to say this but have to admit it nonetheless, am not a big fan of football… I’m more a “physical” sport lover, and therefore Rugby is first on my list. I am however, extremely familiar with my country of birth, South Africa. I thought it might be a good idea to give all the football lovers, fans and fanatics a bit of information on where all the football stadiums are, some brief information about the stadiums (perhaps even their surroundings), as well as some information and contact details about some nearby campsites for those who might be interested in going next year… hey, you never know!! There is still plenty of time left to book your flights and get your match tickets.

The FIFA World Cup “kicks” off on the 11th June 2010 and the final match will be played on the 11th July 2010. Obviously during this month the matches will be played all over the country on different dates as well as at different stadiums.
To give you a quick overview, for those who don’t already know this, I am including a small map with the locations of those all-important stadiums.

The “groups” that were drawn over the past couple of weeks are as follows:

GROUP A	GROUP B
- South Africa	- Aregentina
- Mexico	- Nigeria
- Uruguay	- Korea Republic
- France	- Greece

GROUP C	GROUP D
- England	- Germany
- USA	- Australia
- Algeria	- Serbia
- Slovenia	- Ghana

GROUP E	GROUP F
- Netherlands	- Italy
- Denmark	- Paraguay
- Japan	- New Zealand
- Cameroon	- Slovakia

GROUP G	GROUP H
- Brazil	- Spain
- Korea DPR	- Switzerland
- Côte d’Ivoire	- Honduras
- Portugal	- Chile

I also thought it might be of interest to people if I included the matches for each group, the date and time they will be played, as well as which venue each match will be played at.

Group A
Match	Date – Time	Venue			Results
1	11/06 16:00	Johannesburg – JSC		South Africa	-	Mexico
2	11/06 20:30	Cape Town		Uruguay	-	France
17	16/06 20:30	Tshwane/Pretoria		South Africa	-	Uruguay
18	17/06 20:30	Polokwane		France	-	Mexico
33	22/06 16:00	Rustenburg		Mexico	-	Uruguay
34	22/06 16:00	Mangaung / Bloemfontein		France	-	South Africa

Group B
Match	Date – Time	Venue			Results
3	12/06 16:00	Johannesburg – JEP		Argentina	-	Nigeria
4	12/06 13:30	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Korea Republic	-	Greece
19	17/06 16:00	Mangaung / Bloemfontein		Greece	-	Nigeria
20	17/06 13:30	Johannesburg – JSC		Argentina	-	Korea Republic
35	22/06 20:30	Durban		Nigeria	-	Korea Republic
36	22/06 20:30	Polokwane		Greece	-	Argentina

Group C
Match	Date – Time	Venue			Results
5	12/06 20:30	Rustenburg		England	-	USA
6	13/06 13:30	Polokwane		Algeria	-	Slovenia
22	18/06 16:00	Johannesburg – JEP		Slovenia	-	USA
23	18/06 20:30	Cape Town		England	-	Algeria
37	23/06 16:00	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Slovenia	-	England
38	23/06 16:00	Tshwane/Pretoria		USA	-	Algeria

Group D
Match	Date – Time	Venue			Results
7	13/06 20:30	Durban		Germany	-	Australia
8	13/06 16:00	Tshwane/Pretoria		Serbia	-	Ghana
21	18/06 13:30	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Germany	-	Serbia
24	19/06 16:00	Rustenburg		Ghana	-	Australia
39	23/06 20:30	Johannesburg – JSC		Ghana	-	Germany
40	23/06 20:30	Nelspruit		Australia	-	Serbia

Group E
Match	Date – Time	Venue			Results
9	14/06 13:30	Johannesburg – JSC		Netherlands	-	Denmark
10	14/06 16:00	Mangaung / Bloemfontein		Japan	-	Cameroon
25	19/06 13:30	Durban		Netherlands	-	Japan
26	19/06 20:30	Tshwane/Pretoria		Cameroon	-	Denmark
43	24/06 20:30	Rustenburg		Denmark	-	Japan
44	24/06 20:30	Cape Town		Cameroon	-	Netherlands

Group F
Match	Date – Time	Venue			Results
11	14/06 20:30	Cape Town		Italy	-	Paraguay
12	15/06 13:30	Rustenburg		New Zealand	-	Slovakia
27	20/06 13:30	Mangaung / Bloemfontein		Slovakia	-	Paraguay
28	20/06 16:00	Nelspruit		Italy	-	New Zealand
41	24/06 16:00	Johannesburg – JEP		Slovakia	-	Italy
42	24/06 16:00	Polokwane		Paraguay	-	New Zealand

Group G
Match	Date – Time	Venue			Results
13	15/06 16:00	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Côte d’Ivoire	-	Portugal
14	15/06 20:30	Johannesburg – JEP		Brazil	-	Korea DPR
29	20/06 20:30	Johannesburg – JSC		Brazil	-	Côte d’Ivoire
30	21/06 13:30	Cape Town		Portugal	-	Korea DPR
45	25/06 16:00	Durban		Portugal	-	Brazil
46	25/06 16:00	Nelspruit		Korea DPR	-	Côte d’Ivoire

Group H
Match	Date – Time	Venue			Results
15	16/06 13:30	Nelspruit		Honduras	-	Chile
16	16/06 16:00	Durban		Spain	-	Switzerland
31	21/06 16:00	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Chile	-	Switzerland
32	21/06 20:30	Johannesburg – JEP		Spain	-	Honduras
47	25/06 20:30	Tshwane/Pretoria		Chile	-	Spain
48	25/06 20:30	Mangaung / Bloemfontein		Switzerland	-	Honduras

It might be easier for me to start at the “top” of the country and work my way down with regard to the information of the stadiums and nearby campsites. The first region will be Polokwane, which falls in the Limpopo province.

PART 2