After the qualifiers, of the 204 countries entering the competition out of the 208 members of FIFA, 32 teams will vie for the world championship. They are Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Côte d’Ivoire, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Paraguay, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa (host), Spain, Switzerland, Uruguay and the United States of America. Africa won the right to stage the tournament thanks to FIFA’s rotating system in which FIFA itself designated the continent. Egypt, Morocco, the Republic of South Africa, and Tunisia and Libya with a joint bid competed for the right. The result was announced by Joseph Blatter, the president of the FIFA, in Zurich on 15 May 2004. The Republic of South Africa’s bid won more than 50% of the votes in the first round, and thus secured the right to stage the World Cup. The official mascot of the World Cup is Zakumi, a leopard. The name is a combination of ZA, the Afrikaans abbreviation of Zuid Afrika, and “kumi”, meaning ten in several African languages. Zakumi symbolises the people living there, and the geography and spirit of the Republic of South Africa. The official ball for the World Cup was unveiled at the draw for the world championship on 4 December 2009. It is named Jabulani, which means “to celebrate” in Zulu. The ball has 11 different colours, which symbolise the 11 regions and official languages of South Africa as well as the 11 players of each team starting a match. Its makers believe it is the roundest ball of all time. (Source: hu.wikipedia.org) The main motif of the design of the stamp is a football with the outlines of the continents referring to the world football championship. As part of the individual graphic composition there are figures dressed in the strips of different nations in poses reflecting movements typical of football.
