That place on the web that sells tickets to the foot-operated sport worth billions taking place in a country featuring cities like Cape Town and Johannesburg this year – FIFA.com – has taken the count-down clock off-line – so I had to find other sources to give the 2 day, 18hr count-down.

Meanwhile, there is some uproar regarding the takings some teams have in store for them as winnings paid by their own countries should them come home successfully from the World Cup 2010, even in the light of world-wide “financial pressure”.

So, how much can each player expect to take home as earnings should they lift the trophy?

• Spain: € 600 000 per player
• Italy: € 250 000 per player
• Argentina: € 510 000 per player
• England: € 470 000 per player
• Brazil: € 445 000 per player
• France: € 300 000 per player
• Germany: € 250 000 per player (Quarter-Final progress: a payment of € 50 000 per player, Semi-Final progress: additional € 100 000 per player, making it to the final: additional € 150 000 per player)
• Ghana: € 100 000 per player should they reach the Round of 16 matches

Let’s translate this into South African Rand (€ 1 = R 9.5014 on 8 June 2010 at 16:00), and compare this to the per-capita GDP in South Africa (latest World Bank figure (2008) is $5,678 (approx R 44 912.98 at the same conversion rate date, at $1 = R 7.91), Stats South Africa is offline (technical error):

• Spain: R 5 700 840 per player ( 126.9 x South African GDP per capita)
• Italy: R 2 375 350 per player ( 52.8 x South African GDP per capita)
• Argentina: R 4 845 714 per player ( 107.9 x South African GDP per capita)
• England: R 4 465 535.80 per player ( 99 x South African GDP per capita)
• Brazil: R 4 228 123 per player ( 94 x South African GDP per capita)
• France: R 2 850 420 per player ( 63 x South African GDP per capita)
• Germany: R 2 375 350 per player (Quarter-Final progress: a payment of R 475 070 per player, Semi-Final progress: R 950 140 per player, making it to the final: R 1 425 210 per player) ( 52.9 x South African GDP per capita)
• Ghana: R 950 140 per player should they reach the Round of 16 matches ( 21 x South African GDP per capita)

So if Spain win, their 23-man squad takes home as much as 2918 South Africans earn (gross) in a year. I just worked that out. Compare that with www.capetown.travel‘s info regarding trivia on the new Cape Town Green Point Stadium: “More than 2 500 workers were employed on site during construction, and almost 1 200 artisans received training from the contractors.”

Just a thought… Kinda surprising, but I guess that’s big soccer…

Tickets are still available for Cape Town for the following matches in the following categories:

• England – Algeria (Tickets in Category 2)
• Portugal – Korea DPR (Tickets in Categories 2 and 3)
• Cameroon – Netherlands (Tickets in Categories 1, 2 and 3)

And chances are, as time goes by, more tickets will appear for sale online.

Current picture below:

Ticket availability - 2 days, 18hrs to go