Charlize Theron, give a whole new meaning to the
THE BEAUTIFUL GAME...
Friday, December 4
2009
CNN
Channel 14: 1:00
am - "Live"
The draw
ceremony starts at : 1:00 am - (Sat)
First ball due out of the hat
expected to be 1 hr later.
Come
back again to check on Tv
schedule
Pots for Friday's World Cup draw:
Pot
1:
South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany,
Italy, Netherlands, Spain
Pot
2:
Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Honduras,
Mexico, USA, New Zealand
Pot
3:
Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Chile,
Paraguay, Uruguay
Pot
4:
Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Switzerland
Blonde Oscar winner Theron is to co-host the 90-minute
TV extravaganza that will kick-off the countdown to the greatest
show on earth.
The show will be televised live to every corner of the
globe as Theron joins FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke to sort
the 32 finalists into eight groups of four for next summer's
tournament.
The show will also feature England star David Beckham
and Nobel Peace prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. And there is
no doubt this sports-mad nation cannot wait for the World Cup. It
is not so much a fever as a full-on pandemic.
Each airport has a sign telling visitors how many days
remain until the June 11 kick-off. The countdown never leaves the
corner of the screen of one of the many designated TV sports
channels here in South Africa.
In big, red numbers, it is even in Nelson Mandela
Square in Sandton, north of Johannesburg, where a 20-foot tall
bronze statue of this country's most feted figure looks down on
proceedings.
Rugby union and cricket are traditionally the main
sports in South Africa. But they are white people's games, the
sports of the minority.
Football rules OK here and, if you want to watch Rooney
and Drogba and Fabregas and Gerrard, this is the country for
you.
Every English Premier League match is shown, most of
them live and the rest in their entirety but a little delayed.
The TV folk are calling Friday's draw the sporting
event of the year. It is only the draw, for goodness sake. How will
they describe the event itself?
The greatest single event in the history of mankind,
perhaps? The hype knows no limits. Each city seems to resemble a
building site in readiness for the World Cup.
The roads and infrastructure are being improved and
tarted up to try to show South Africa as an efficient, sleek,
emerging nation.
They even reckon all the stadia will be ready, too.
Certainly the ground here in Durban is a magnificent, futuristic
structure with walls that appear to be see-through and a vast roof
that looks like a tent.
The big concern is that the host nation's team - known
across the globe as Bafana Bafana - are hardly top class. But when
they are eliminated the word is the locals will switch to Fabio
Capello's boys because of their Premier League obsession.
