The stamp has been issued in a 9-stamp sheetlet with one label, and there is also a special design cover without stamp. Motif: footballers’ legs and ball and the Official Emblem © The official Emblem and Official Mascot of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa ™ and the FIFA World Cup Trophy are copyrights and trademarks of FIFA. All rights reserved. From June 11 to July 11, 2010 the Republic of South Africa will be the host of the FIFA World Cup™, a competition which – along with the Summer Olympic Games, has always attracted the greatest attention of the audience. This is the 19th display of football, overall most popular sport, and it is for the first time hosted on the African Continent. About the popularity of football in all parts of the world speaks the fact that 715 millions spectators had seen the final of the last FIFA World Cup™ in Germany, a match between Italy and France. During June and July in the African south there will be 32 national teams, among which there will be no Croatia. This is the first time after France 1998 that the Croatian footballers won’t play at the FIFA World Cup ™. The interruption came after participations in the 1988 FIFA World Cup™ in France, in Japan and South Korea (2002) and in Germany (2006). As always, the greatest number of participants is coming from Europe, headed by Italy, the defender of the title. There will be also Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland. The second Continent after the number of participating teams is Africa represented by the Republic of South Africa, Algeria, Cameroon Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria. From South America there are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, from Central and North America - Mexico, USA and Honduras and from Asia Japan, South and North Korea, and the two last teams making up the number of 32 are Australia and New Zealand. The First FIFA World Cup™ took place in Uruguay in1930 when it was won by domestic team. The rule to organise the cup every four years was immediately established and practiced with the exception of two editions missed (1942 and 1946) because of the Second World War. Despite of the fact that even 18 FIFA World Cup tournaments had taken place, only seven national teams managed to win the trophy. Most often - five times, the winning team was Brazilian. Four times the cup was won by Italians, three times by Germans, and twice by Argentina and Uruguay while England and France won the Cup once. It is also interesting to mention that the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia and Hungary were finalists twice, but are still waiting for their first trophy. This FIFA World Cup™ will be marked by the return to the event of the football legend and one of the best players of all times, Diego Armando Maradona. In 1986, in Mexico, leading Argentina, he won the FIFA World Cup™ title. Four years later he played in the finals in Italy, while in 1994 he was excluded from the FIFA World Cup™ in the USA for doping violation. This year, 2010, he is back as the coach of Argentina and it is just in his team of Argentina that today’s best world’s footballer, Lionel Messi will play. The championship will be deprived of some stars: David Beckham, the icon of the English representation, because of bad injury will have to miss his fourth performance at the best player’s exhibition. As concerns Croatian footballers two of them are mentioned in all books about FIFA World Cup™. Dražan Jerković and Davor Šuker – each of them in his own time, earned the epithet of the best FIFA World Cup™ scorer. In 1962, in Chile, Jerković earned that title together with five other footballers (Vava, Garincha, Sanchez, Ivanov and Albert), each of them scoring four times. In 1998 Šuker was alone at the top list of best scorers with six goals. Stipe Karadžole
