South Africa favourites for World cup venue

South Africa last night emerged as slight favourites to win the race to stage the 2010 World Cup but face a nerve-wracking contest against challengers Morocco in today’s vote.

The two African countries ended a day of presentations to FIFA’s executive committee with Morocco having gained some ground on their main rivals following Tunisia’s decision to pull out of the running and back their fellow Arab state.

South Africa’s bid still remains the most likely to succeed, if only by the narrowest of margins, and their best hope lies in winning an outright majority among FIFA’s 24 executive committee members.