I'm a little behind the times on this, but it seems that tickets for the Confederations Cup have been on sale since November. I went through and priced out the cheapest seats for the USA matches and they're only $30 each. Unfortunately, I'm still not certain I can make the trip. It seems I have until June to figure it out.

A FIFA inspection team tells us that 2010 stadiums are on track.

FIFA released a story outlining a plan by South Africa's Department of Home Affairs to issue event visas for fans traveling to the country for the Confederation Cup and the World Cup.

Nick Green of 100 Percent Soccer is reporting that the draw for the hexagonal round of CONCACAF qualifying will take place on November 22 in Johannesburg, the same time and place for the FIFA Confederations Cup Draw. So we will know the USA's qualifying and Confed Cup schedules on that day.

FIFA posted some stadium updates on their site that I have been meaning to get to. Today I finally did. The first talks of some of the international design elements and focuses on the one in Port Elizabeth, "like no other".

The CONCACAF fourth round of qualifying, otherwise known as the hexagonal or "hex", will start on February 11, 2009. I've got the full schedule below. The USA will be participating in the FIFA Confederations Cup between June 14-28, so they've been permitted to schedule their June hexagonal dates earlier than the June 6 and 10 dates reserved by FIFA.

CONCACAF hexagonal dates for USA:
February 11
March 28
April 1
June 3-7 (two dates)
August 12
September 5

FIFA has released a few details on the availability of tickets to fans (as opposed to corporations). Most notable are that public sales will begin in February of next year and the amount of tickets allocated to each team's federation will increase from eight percent to 12 percent.

Read the full article at FIFA.com.

In Germany in 2006, I brought my RAZR phone with me and bought a SIM card from the European operator O2 for it. It is simple to switch them out and you pay by the minute, adding more minutes as you go. I had a German phone number too. It was a great way to stay in touch with people, and I am hoping to do the same thing in South Africa.

This is a bit old, but I wanted to post something to get myself thinking about planning. FIFA and the South Africa 2010 organizing committee released the official logo a few months back.

We checked things out in the airport to get our bearings, and then walked up to the third floor. There was a TGI Friday's, a Subway, and a Church's Chicken up there. We hadn't eaten in a while, so we sat down at Friday's and had some beers and appetizers. The restaurant was decorated like any Friday's around the world, with bullshit "Americana" junk hanging around the bar. It was big and open and it overlooked the arrivals area down on the second floor.