FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AFRICA!

These days, international attention is riveted to South Africa, where the World Cup is under way.  The biggest football tournament in four years will give us an opportunity to enjoy games between the world's strongest players and teams.  For one month, fans will enjoy the best goals, experience the joy of victory, and some will taste the bitterness of defeat.

Bookmakers' favourites.

The bookmakers have identified two teams as the most realistic winners of the cup, those from Brazil and Spain.  Third place goes to Diego Maradona's team, fourth - to the English, and fifth to the Dutch.  The favourite to be leading scorer is David Villa.  Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney are second and third.

Pele's forecast

Pele, the living legend of international football, also made a forecast before the World Cup in South Africa.  The king of football believes that the Spanish and Brazilian teams have very good prospects.  "It is very difficult to predict who will play in the World Cup final in South Africa.  But judging by the situation that has taken shape, the main favourites are certainly the Brazilian and Spanish teams.  These two teams would make good opponents for the final game," said the three times world champion.  Still, in his opinion Spain might not reach the final and the Brazilian team might play one of the African teams in the final.

The most expensive team

A German periodical, Fokus, identified the most expensive team in the World Cup.  This is the Spanish team.  The total transfer value of the European champions is 650 million euro, and the average price per player is 28 million euro.  In second place on the list is England, with an average player transfer value of 18 million euro, and France is third, with an average player value of 16 million euro.  The most valuable player at the World Cup is certainly Argentine Lionel Messi, at 80 million euro.

Aged team

The youngest and oldest teams in the tournament were also disclosed.  Among the older teams is Brazil.  The average age of the team representing the five-times world cup winners is 29 years.  The youngest team is Canada, with an average age of 24.  The youngest player in the tournament is Christian Eriksen.  The Danish player is only 18 years old.  And the oldest player at the World Cup is David James, England team goalkeeper, who is 39 years old.

The greatest prize

The highest monetary prize of the World Cup awaits the Spanish team.  If they win the tournament, every member of Vicente Del Bosque's team will be paid 600,000 euro by their government.  The Argentine national team players will get 510,000 euro in prizes if they win, the England player s- 475,000, French players - 390,000 and Portugal's players - 340,000 euro each.

Brazilians poised to celebrate

The Brazil team will have support from the whole country.  The Central Bank of Brazil has already declared the days when they play to be holidays.  The bank has informed all its clients and urged them to support their team.  Graduation exams at Brazilian universities have also been changed because of the championship.  It is expected that Brazil's match days will be declared holidays in the country.

Referees learn English swear words

Brazilian referees have been given unusual instructions.  The team of referees for the game between the US and English teams are to learn the English swear words which the players of both teams are very likely to exchange during the game, reports Sovetskiy Sport.

"We must know what the players are saying.  All the players use swear words, and they must know that we are listening, one of the Brazilian linesmen, Altemir Hausmann, said.  "This is not our only game; we cannot study 10 languages, but it will be useful to learn English swear words anyway."

The World Cup will be broadcast for the blind

For the first time in the history of the World Cup, the organizers have decided to broadcast the games specifically for blind fans.  According to a FIFA press release, the blind and people with very poor eye sight will be able to "follow" the games at six of the 10 World Cup stadiums in South Africa.

Every arena is equipped with 15 stations with headsets, where people with poor eye sight will be able to listen to a commentary by specially trained commentators.  There will be 15 seats for guides nearby, and there will also be volunteers to assist them.

This was introduced on the initiative of the Swiss national association of the blind and the South African national council for the blind, with financial sponsorship from FIFA.