-AP

Home to some of the coun­try's most fa­nat­i­cal foot­ball fans, the Free State Sta­di­um is like­ly to be the cen­tre of at­ten­tion dur­ing the tour­na­ment.The sta­di­um was giv­en a plush new look for the 2009 Con­fed­er­a­tions Cup and host­ed the mem­o­rable se­mi-fi­nal be­tween Spain and USA.

The Free State Sta­di­um now has a 45,000 ca­pac­i­ty and has host­ed nu­mer­ous ma­jor foot­ball and rug­by union match­es, and Bloem­fontein's na­tives are renowned for their pas­sion for sport.

CITY FACTS

Province: Free State

Pop­u­la­tion: 850,000

Al­ti­tude: 1400m

Ge­og­ra­phy: The city is lo­cat­ed in cen­tral South Africa on the Free State Plateau. The land­scape is ac­cen­tu­at­ed by grass­land plains and low hills.