The coaches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup teams have started arriving in South Africa ahead of Friday’s final draw.
The much-anticipated draw will determine the groups and matches for the tournament’s first round and everybody wants to avoid the legendary “group of death.”
Diego Maradona was Banned
All but one of the 32 coaches will attend the event – Argentina’s controversial Diego Maradona was banned.
According to the FIFA South Africa 2010 website, South Africa’s Academy Award winner Charlize Theron will be the guest presenter assisting FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke during the Final Draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) on Friday, 4 December 2009 (19.00 local time/CET+1).
David Beckham, Haile Gebrselassie, Makhaya Ntini, Matthew Booth and John Smit
They will be joined on stage by a star-studded line-up of sports celebrities, including football star David Beckham (England), one of only a few players to score in at least three consecutive FIFA World Cups, Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia), two-time Olympic gold medallist and nine-time athletics world champion, Makhaya Ntini, the first black player in the South African cricket team, John Smit, the captain of rugby world champions South Africa and Bafana Bafana player Matthew Booth.
Madiba – Video Message
Former South African President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela, one of the architects of the first African World Cup, will address the audience by video message.
The Final Draw - Live to 200 Million People
The Final Draw will be beamed live to an estimated audience of more than 200 million people in more than 200 territories. It has attracted unprecedented worldwide interest and an onsite presence of 2,000 invited guests and more than 1,700 media representatives.
It has taken a year of preparations, 3,600 hours of manpower and 5,000 hours of production to put together the draw show from the stage to the actual performances
World Cup Trophy Arrived
The Solid Gold World Cup Trophy arrived in Cape Town after an extensive roadshow on its tour of Africa.
The solid gold trophy has toured almost all the countries in Africa since September and arrived from Lesotho on Tuesday amid tight security at Cape Town International Airport.
The World Cup Trophy will stay in the Cape Town until after the World Cup final draw on Friday. The trophy tour, which started its journey from the FIFA Headquarters in Zurich on September 21, will travel around the world before arriving back in South Africa on May 4, 2010. The total distance the tour will travel is 134 017 kilometres or more than three times the circumference of Earth.
Photos: David Beckham and Charlize Theron, Celebrity Presenters at the Final Draw. Fifa.com
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