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Despite being Scottish, i do find myself supporting England when it comes to the World Cup. But 2010 has already proved a difficult year, even for an arm's-length England fan. The warm up matches before the World Cup saw a fairly lucky win over Mexico (who dominated the game for the most part), followed by a even luckier win against the Japanese.

England's arrival in South Africa for the tournament itself didn't quite go to plan either, with a pretty average display against the renowned footballing country that is USA. The man who suffered most, perhaps fairly, was goalkeeper Robert Green, failing to collect a mediocre attempt on goal and instead allowing it to trundle across the line for the USA to equalise.

It would be fair to say it was a calamitous mistake and will no doubt have upset the man himself. So if you were (or are) a member of Robert Green's family, now might be a good time to get him an early Christmas present to cheer him up. If England are to move forward in the tournament with Robert Green in goal, then he will undoubtedly need the rest of his team to rally around him and give him some kind of confidence boost before the kick off against Algeria. Ideally we need to send the perfect Xmas gift for him, so perhaps a giant inflatable ball ... you know, for training purposes. Not the one that Liverpool so love, but Wayne Rooney could fire it at him all day long and not even Green could drop that one, thus restoring a little confidence.

Maybe the gift should be a table football game, (maybe an unusual gift for him perhaps), complete with no goalkeepers, just to replicate how England fans felt against the USA. If we are even smarter, perhaps we can persuade the next referee that the Kickster Goal Pro 2000 goalposts are actually standard size, but then England didn't seem all that clever at scoring unless the posts were placed in row Z.

So the FIFA World Cup 2010 is just a few short days away, with the opening fixture set to take place on Friday (SA vs. Mexico) at 3.As all the players perform their last preparations for the tournament out in the cold weather of South Africa (it's winter there), there's a handful of players who will be sat back in England with a. As all the teams and players get ready for the tournament out in South Africa, there's a small collection of players that will be sat at home with a desk fan to warn off the heat whilst watching it with the rest of us.

There appears to be a good number of players missing the tournament through injury, and a surprising amount of them come from the Premier League:

Rio Ferdinand (injured)
Nani (Man Utd) INJURED
Didier Drogba (doubtful)
Michael Ballack (injured)
Michael Essien (injured)
Mikel (Chelsea) INJURED

Actually, looking at that list, maybe it should be the curse of Manchester United and Chelsea ¦ especially when we consider John Terry's antics in the run up to the competition. Even players who used to play for United or Chelsea appear to be caught up in it:

Arjen Robben (doubtful)
David Beckham (injured) Ex-Manchester United

So what is it about playing in the English Premier League that seems to lead to an increased amount of injuries? It's an interesting statistic that pretty much all of the injured World Cup players come from the two teams that finished first and second in last years' Premier League seasons.

Most pundits agree that the English top flight division is one of the toughest leagues to play in in the World. The pace of the game is quicker, there are more games (on average) per season for the biggest clubs and the players are generally closed down faster and tackled harder.
It's clear that playing in the English Premier League may give you the chance to play at the best stadiums in front of some of the best fans in the World, but it certainly decreases your chances of playing in major international tournaments.

It's by no means the first time England have suffered from problems with injury either; take Wayne Rooney's broken metatarsal or Michael Owen's collapse in the last major tournament.

Luckily, Rooney has managed to survive this time (touch wood, fingers crossed, pray), whereas Michael will be sat at home for the first time in his career, playing about with the dehumidifier.

So if you want to play in major World tournaments, perhaps the English Premier League (or at least its top clubs) isn't the place you want to be playing your football. If nothing else, at least England, Ghana, Germany and Portugal will have an excuse this year ¦ if only the curse had reached Ronaldo!

Oh well, if nothing else, at least the players staying behind this year can take some comfort from the fact that it's winter in South Africa. So while the other players are concerning themselves with umbrellas and coats, we'll be dusting off the air conditioners!

As the football World Cup gets ever closer, huge numbers of fans will descend on South Africa from all over the World to support their country.

Considering Africa usually welcomes tourists on safari holidays, they're about to receive a huge influx of travellers from all over the globe before the World Cup starts on June 11. So are the South African people and the country itself properly prepared for such a high profile tournament?

South Africa has faced a huge amount of scrutiny from journalists and pundits across the World; their transport links, accommodation, pricing and national security have all been called into question continually. Cape Town, where a lot of England fans will be visiting, has a higher murder rate than Belfast, London and Glasgow combined. Whilst being indicative of the way of life of some people in the contry, these kind of statistics don't immediately mean you're not safe to travel there?

As far as I can tell, the country seems very well prepared for the tournament; the stadia are incredible and will not suffer from any serious structural or safety issues, the public transport links are excellent (better than England in a lot of cases) and the people are, on the whole, warm, welcoming and excited to have such an influx of foreign nationals to their country.

The police genuinely are excellent too; they recognise that their job will be a difficult one but seem fully physically and mentally prepared for the challenge.

From where I'm sitting I don't think England fans have anything to worry about; I'd advise not wandering off the beaten track or straying too far from the contingent of tourists where you're staying, but to be honest I'd give similar advice to anyone travelling to any major city in the World, London included.

For anyone that is travelling over to the World Cup, don't let yourself get too bogged down worrying about personal safety; South Africa takes is responsibilities very seriously and with a bit of common sense you'll be fine. Don't forget your own responsibility to represent the country you're travelling to support either, we don't want a repeat of England fan's behaviour at previous major tournaments. Don't forget either that while it may be summer here, it's winter in South Africa and it will be cold, so pack accordingly if you're heading out there!

This article was written by John, who works for a holiday company specialising in Kenya Holidays & Tanzania Safari's. He's a big fan of football and wishes he was going back to South Africa again this year.