Excitement is building in lead up to the South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup, particularly at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) where nearly half of Australia’s national football (soccer) squad, the Qantas Socceroos, were scholarship athletes.

The AIS has an excellent reputation for training and developing high-quality football players who have gone on to play for dozens of leading teams around the world, as well as at home. Seventeen ex-AIS athletes played in the Socceroos squad for the 2010 World Cup qualifying games: John Aloisi, Mark Bresciano, Brett Emerton, Vince Grella, James Holland, Josh Kennedy, Mark Milligan, Craig Moore, Lucas Neil, Jade North, Matthew Špiranović, Mile Sterjovski, Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Carl Valeri, Luke Wilkshire, David Williams and 2007–08 A-League Young Player of the year Bruce Djite.

These former-AIS athletes have played a key role in helping the Socceroos qualify for this year’s FIFA World Cup, which takes place 11 June–11 July in nine cities around South Africa. Australia’s first World Cup matches will be against Germany, Ghana and Serbia in group D. The top two nations in overall points will then advance to the 16-nations knockout stage.

The Socceroos’ first South African matches are:

• Australia versus Germany — 13 June in Durban
• Australia versus Ghana — 19 June in Rustenburg
• Australia versus Serbia — 23 June in Nelspruit.

The Australian Government is providing travel bulletins to assist Australian football fans planning to visit South Africa for the World Cup games through its Smartraveller website.

Australia’s most successful World Cup campaign so far has been the Germany 2006 FIFA World Cup, in which the Socceroos reached the knockout stage but were narrowly defeated by Italy. The 2006 squad also featured a large contingent of ex-AIS players: John Aloisi, Mark Bresciano, Brett Emerton, Vince Grella, Josh Kennedy, Mark Milligan, Craig Moore, Lucas Neil, Josip Skoko, Mile Sterjovski, Mark Viduka and Luke Wilkshire.