The countdown to South Africa is on. The draw for the 2010 Fifa World Cup has been made

After over 3 years of build up, and Fifa's unbelievably drawn out qualification process, the draw for the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa has been made. The 32 greatest international teams from 6 continents have made their way to this stage and now know who they will play. 8 groups with 4 teams in each group will play to get through to the knockout stages of Africa's first ever World Cup, and even if you do not appreciate the contribution Sepp Blatter has made to football (which on the whole I have to say I don't), there is no argument that this is his crowning glory.

The draw itself, it has to be said was a bit of a long, drawn out and to be perfectly honest unneccessary process, but one particular highlight was the video message which Nelson Mandella recorded. One of the greatest living celebrities, he was sadly unwell and could not attend the draw in person, but he seemed genuinely happy that his country has obtained the biggest tournament in the world. I know that on this site alone all 6 continents and probably all 32 nations are represented, and that really is the beautiful things about this game.

The draw was fairly straightforward to start with, but when we got to the other African nations in pot 3 it got a little complicated

Forgive the poor presentation, but I did this while the draw was live so it is a little cobbled together. Clearly most people on faniq will be looking forward to Group C, but the group of death looks to be Group G

In 188 days, the hype will be over and the football will begin...Below is the draw for the 2010 World Cup:
Feel free to discuss below;

Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France

Group B: Argentina, South Korea, Nigeria, Greece

Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia

Group D: Germany, Australia, Ghana, Serbia

Group E: Netherlands, Japan, Cameroon, Denmark

Group F: Italy, New Zealand, Paraguay, Slovakia

Group G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Cost, Portugal

Group H: Spain, Honduras, Chile, Switzerland

I really can't wait for this competiton, and now that we have the draw at last the speculation can begin properly