World Cup Trophy on Tour

June 4th, 2009 | by: Daryl |

Want to get your hands on the World Cup trophy? Well, you can’t. Not unless you’re an international footballer anyway. And even then it’s an uphill battle. But you might be able to get your photo taken with it.

From September 2009 to May 2010 the World Cup trophy will make like a world famous rock band and go on a fizzy drink sponsored 225 day world tour, covering 134,017 kilometers (83,274 miles) as it visits 86 countries.

From the fizzy pop press release:

During the Trophy Tour, fans will be given the chance to enjoy a rare close-up view of the authentic FIFA World Cup Trophy. Free tickets to the 2009/10 Trophy Tour will be made available to consumers via Coca-Cola promotions in countries on the route. At events in each city, fans will have the opportunity to have a souvenir photo taken of themselves with the trophy, view a special 3-D movie showcasing memorable moments of the FIFA World Cup, participate in interactive displays and enjoy other entertainment. Countries and dates of the route are subject to change.

There’s a PDF file with an itinerary of the trophy’s tour. Basically it starts off in Cairo, Egypt on September 24th, 2009 before working its way around the African continent and down to Cape Town, South Africa by December 3rd, 2009.

After a brief rest, the trophy arrives in Seoul, South Korea on January 17th, 2010 and works its way south and then east to South America, working north until Mexico and then east again to begin it’s European tour in Ireland. It keeps going east, though Russia, Kazakhstan, India and Japan and then Canada before ending a long journey in the USA on May 2nd (American city TBC, but the smart money’s on NYC, right?).

Finally, the trophy gets back to South Africa on May 4th, where it will sit and wait for a team captain to lift it on July 11th, 2010 in Johannesburg.

Here’s a map of the World Cup trophy tour. Click to enlarge, and then click again to make it so big your eyes hurt.

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Rory

Awesome. You got to love how the trophy goes to Malayasia then New Caledonia without stopping in Australia. New Caledonia, seriously?
http://hamburg.theoffside.com Evan

New Caledonia population: 200-300k
Australia population: 20 million
China population: 1-1.3 billion

Smart marketing by FIFA….
http://manu.theoffside.com Wayne Farry

9th March 2010 in Dublin. I’m already there, in a manner of speaking.
Louise

According to that mappy do-dad, it’s going to Houston, although if it’s (insert fizzy beverage here), it should go to Atlanta, said beverage’s headquarters.

I guess we’ll have to take (insert fizzy beverage here)’s word for the authenticity of the trophy, because the last time it was supposedly on tour in the US, it turned out to be a replica because the Azzurri were still messing about with it. (Speaking of, the only way I’ll go see it is if the hands that are holding it in that picture are holding it when it comes to the States.)
http://www.lastkick.com Afshin Afshar

Hey, no stop in Tehran? Common’ that’s the only way my people will ever get to see it! :-P
martin

Why are there so many stops in Africa? And yet also some pretty glaring omissions in the form of Australia, China, and large sections of Europe. France and Italy are the only two countries in mainland Europe…no Spain, no Netherlands, no Germany, no Portugal; the list goes on. And one stop for the whole of the USA?
tapejunior

Can someone explain to FIFA that Ireland and the UK are not on the one island. A few people have gotten upset about things like that over the last 800 years!!
martin

Well yeah, but they have two separate stops you know…
El

For my understanding this is not FIFA fault. Its the Coca-Cola that is sponsoring the Tour. So wherever they want the trophy to go, meaning best for their company, usually thats where it will end up going. But i love that is going to almost every country in Africa. It’s been a while, and Africa need this recognition.