2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa to be granted host status, Nelson Mandela had previously spoken of the importance of football in his life, stating that while incarcerated in Robben Island prison playing football "made us feel alive and triumphant despite the situation we found ourselves in". With South Africa winning their bid, an emotional Mandela raised the FIFA World Cup Trophy. During 2006 and 2007, rumours circulated in various news sources that the 2010 World Cup could be moved to another country. Franz Beckenbauer, Horst R. Schmidt and, reportedly, some FIFA executives, expressed concern over the planning, organisation, and pace of South Africa's
FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup the 2010 edition, tournaments held in years immediately preceding the FIFA Women's World Cup are awarded as part of the bidding process for the Women's World Cup. In those years, the U-20 Women's World Cup serves as a dry run for the host nation of the Women's World Cup, a role similar to that of the FIFA Confederations Cup in the men's game. Every continental governing body has its own qualifying tournament. Usually their continental championship is used as a qualifier. The first women's world championship at the youth level, held as the 2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship, with