Which was the first World Cup held in Africa?

For most of the World Cup's history, the tournament travelled between Europe and the Americas, with occasional stops in Asia. Africa, a continent passionate about football and home to ever-growing national teams, was repeatedly passed over as a host. It was not until 2010, eighty years after the tournament began, that the World Cup finally arrived in Africa. The host country chosen for that historic edition was South Africa.

The decision to take the World Cup to Africa came in the early 2000s. FIFA used a rotation principle at the time, which gave the African confederation a designated turn to host. African nations bid against one another for the right to stage the 2010 tournament, including Morocco, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. South Africa was selected as the winner. The country had built much of its football infrastructure in the years after the end of apartheid, and was seen as the bid most able to deliver the tournament.

The 2010 World Cup was played in ten stadiums across nine South African cities. Some were brand new, like Soccer City in Johannesburg, where the opening match and the final were both played. Others, such as Cape Town's stadium beneath Table Mountain, became iconic images of the tournament. South Africa, the host, was eliminated in the group stage, but the football itself produced strong moments, including Ghana's run to the quarter-finals — the closest an African team has ever come to a World Cup semi-final.

On the pitch, the trophy went to Spain. They beat the Netherlands 1–0 in the final at Soccer City, with a single goal from Andrés Iniesta deep in extra time. It was Spain's first ever World Cup title, completing a remarkable run that had begun with their European Championship win in 2008. For Spanish football, the 2010 tournament marked the peak of an era. For African football, it marked the moment the tournament truly became global.

One unmistakable memory from the 2010 World Cup is sound. South African fans brought a long plastic horn called the vuvuzela to every match, and the constant, droning buzz of tens of thousands of them filled every stadium. The sound divided fans and television viewers around the world. Some loved it as a vivid expression of South African football culture; others found it overwhelming. Either way, it became one of the defining features of the first African World Cup — a tournament heard as much as it was watched.

This article was written using information from Wikipedia.