Click here for Live Streaming

While the English tabloids are busy panicking about the fact that buildings have to be, you know, built, FIFA has released the list of World Cup 2010 bases for all 32 teams. This is where each squad will live, sleep, eat, breathe, train, watch bad movies on DVD and play XBox between World Cup matches.

World Cup HQ is presumably massively important. It’s where the players and staff will spend the majority of their time, and so a happy World Cup base should theoretically translate into a happy and successful World Cup team.

Obviously I don’t have too many details about what each location has to offer. I could do some Googling for you, but suspect the result would be each location claiming either “world class” or “state of the art” facilities. Or maybe “state of the art world class” facilities. Instead, here’s the list released by FIFA today, followed by a few ill-informed snap judgements:

Algeria, Zimbali Lodge
Argentina, High Performance Centre
Australia, Kloofzicht Lodge
Brazil, The Fairway
Cameroon, Oyster Box
Chile, Ingwenyama Conference Center
Denmark, Simola Hotel Country Club
England, Bafokeng Sports Campus
France, Pezula Resort Hotel & Spa
Germany, Velmore Hotel
Ghana, Rhoode Valley
Greece, Beverly Hills Hotel
Honduras, The Indaba Hotel
Italy, Leriba Lodge
Ivory Coast, Riverside Hotel & Conference
Japan, Fancourt Hotel & Country Club
Mexico, Thaba Ya Batswana
Netherlands, Hilton Sandton
New Zealand, Serengeti Estate
Nigeria, Hemshire
North Korea, Protea Hotel Midrand
Paraguay, Woodridge Country Estate
Portugal, Valley Lodge
Serbia, Sunnyside Park Hotel
Slovakia, The Villas Luxury Suite Hotel
Slovenia, Hyde Park Southern Sun
Spain, NWU Campus
South Africa, Southern Sun Grayston
South Korea, Hunters Rest Hotel
Switzerland, Emerald Resort & Casino
United States, Irene Country Lodge
Uruguay, Protea Hotel Kimberley

Source: Associated Press

Assumptions I’ve made based entirely on the names of the various bases:

• Argentina will attempt to use the power of science to maximize team potential at the High Performance Centre. I see a lot of graphs, which Diego Maradona will completely ignore.
• The Brazil squad will play a lot of golf at The Fairway, with Robinho repetitively waving his golf club around the ball in a circular motion before teeing off.
• France will be very very relaxed at the Pezula Resort Hotel & Spa. Until Domenech names his starting eleven anyway.
• Cote d’Ivoire will ignore actual training, and will instead have a lot of roundtable business meetings at the Riverside Hotel & Conference.
• Japan’s time at the Fancourt Hotel & Counry Club will make the Blue Samurai squad ever so slightly snooty.
• The Switzerland squad will lose all their money playing poker and fruit machines and have many many wild nights out. But it’s OK, because what happens in the Emerald Resort & Casino, stays in the Emerald Resort & Casino.
• I have no idea what Cameroon will get up to at The Oyster Box, but would be very interested to find out.

The build-up to a World Cup is always exciting. There’s hype galore and expectations on the rise in all 32 competing nations. Good times.

Seems the build up to World Cup 2010 will be even more exciting than usual though, because as well as the football related build-up there will apparently be a race against time to get everything ready for the big kick off.

FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke (of Charlize Theron flirting fame and pictured above left) was quizzed about South Africa’s readiness to host World Cup 2010 during the FIFA Team Workshop in Sun City, South Africa, and had this to say:

“If the question is ‘could we host the World Cup tomorrow morning?’ the answer is ‘no’,” Valcke said at FIFA’s Team Workshop in Sun City. “At this stage, we couldn’t play the World Cup because Soccer City isn’t ready.”

“At this stage, we couldn’t play the opening game. That’s a fact. At this stage, we have 700,000 tickets still to sell, at this stage I can make a list of things that aren’t ready for the World Cup. We have 108 days – it seems short, it is short, but even if we have to stay awake all night, every day, we will be ready by the time of the World Cup.”

I know, I know. That doesn’t sound great. But nobody panic.

We’ve known from the beginning that holding the World Cup in South Africa would require a fair bit of stadium building and other infrastructure work. It’s also been clear for a while now that some of said work was a little behind schedule. But I can’t see a situation where we get to June 11th 2010 without stadiums being finished and enough infrastructure being in place to make the whole thing work.

It’s the World Cup. It will happen. It’s taking shape even as I type this.

Whatever problems there are, there’s no way an organization as big and powerful and as scared of bad PR as FIFA is going
to let anything bad happen to its showpiece quadrennial tournament. So here’s my advice: Ignore any doom-mongering newspaper and/or website headlines and instead just sit back and enjoy what’s likely to be one of the more exciting buildups in World Cup history.

Cheryl and Ashley Cole have now officially separated.
The X- Factor judge made the announcement via her publicist’s Twitter page. It stated that “Cheryl Cole is separating from her husband Ashley Cole. Cheryl asks the media to respect her privacy during this difficult time.”
Their three and half year marriage had been rocked by a series of [...]

Having taken a brave risk on this week’s show, Sharron paid the price when she ended up bottom of the scoreboard and the judges unanimously saved her opponent in the skate off, Emily Atack. As a 47 year old former athlete, Davies’ body is not what it once was; she suffers from an old swimming [...]