Soccer City World Cup Stadium

Soccer City is the home of the South Africa football team and the biggest football stadium in South Africa. It will host the first and last (the final) games of the World Cup and many more in between.

The atmosphere is likely to be better at Soccer City than any other World Cup stadium in South Africa as it is the only football only arena being used for the World Cup, all of the others are multi purpose stadiums. Soccer city was also where Nelson Mandela made his first speech in Johannesburg after his release from prison so South African fans will be hoping for another historic occasion - a South African World Cup victory.

The World Cup gets underway at Soccer City with the South Africa v Mexico fixture, the first game of the World Cup. South Africa will obviously be hoping to get the World Cup off to a great start and this could be a game where punters get to see just how good the African sides are going to be at the World Cup.

There are four other group games being held at Soccer City, Argentina face South Korea here, Brazil have a tough group game against Ivory Coast, Germany will play Ghana here and Holland get their World Cup underway against Denmark at Soccer City.

Soccer City then hosts one of the Second Round fixtures, most likely to be Argentina playing the runner up in Group A. Soccer City also hosts one quarter final before it is saved for the World Cup Final which is played on July 11th. South Africa will be hoping to reach that final and they already have top class winning form at the stadium, they won the 1996 African Nations Cup Final at Soccer City.

The external stadium design gets its inspiration from the calabash, an iconic African pot. The mosaic design is supposed to look like an African pot being warmed by flames from a pit of fire.

Johannesburg is of massive footballing importance in South Africa, it is home to one of the country's oldest clubs, Moroka Swallows, as well as the Sowento rivals Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.