2010 FIFA World Cup qualification scored over 852 matches, scoring on average 2.74 per match. At the close of entries on 15 March 2007, 204 football associations had entered the preliminary competition: 203 out of the 207 FIFA members at that time (including the host nation, South Africa, as the qualification procedure in Africa also acted as the qualification for the 2010 African Cup of Nations) and the Montenegro team, which later became FIFA's 208th member. The final number of teams entered breaks the previous record of 199 entrants set during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Four FIFA members (all from the AFC) failed to
2003 FIFA Women's World Cup China. At the same time the FIFA announced that the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup would be awarded to China in its place. On 26 May 2003, FIFA announced the United States would host the tournament. Because the United States had hosted the 1999 World Cup, it was thought the United States could best organize the tournament in the little time remaining before the October scheduled start. In addition, women's soccer boosters in the United States hoped that interest generated by the tournament would save the U.S. women's professional league, the Women's United Soccer Association, from folding. In compensation for