Wellington  - New Zealand's All Whites see 2009 as their most important year since the national team reached the World Cup finals 26 years ago, an achievement that gave them their highest ever FIFA ranking of 47th.

After slumping to a record low ranking of 156th last year, New Zealand have risen to 54th after five wins in five games in a successful Oceania Nations Cup campaign, which doubled as the regional qualifier for next year's Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup.

Half the players in the current squad were not born when the All Whites beat China 2-1 in Singapore in January 1982 to qualify for the World Cup finals in Spain, and coach Ricki Herbert, who was in that team, is looking for even younger blood for South Africa.

Johannesburg - The advertisements began in local media at the weekend. "The Champions are coming," they say. Come watch Brazil for only 70 rand.

In seven months' time, some of the greatest footballing nations will descend on South Africa for the June 14-28 Confederations Cup, an eight-country tournament held every four years in the World Cup host nation a year before the world's most-watched sporting event.

The United States, Brazil, Spain, Iraq, Egypt and New Zealand - champions of their regions - and World Cup holders Italy and host nation South Africa will battle it out for the title of Champion of Champions in a tournament seen mainly as a dry run for 2010.

Cairo  - While football fans from the participating countries at the Confederations Cup will be looking towards the draw for the competition on November 22 in Johannesburg for answers, Egyptian fans already know in which group they will play.

The reigning African champions will compete in Group B, as the hosts South Africa have been placed in Group A and no two teams from the same confederation can be placed in the same group.

But if the Pharaohs' fans know what group their team will be playing in, they are less sure how good the team will be, even if team officials are optimistic.

Baghdad  - One of the few positive stories coming out of war- torn Iraq in recent years has been the success of their national football teams.

Since 2003, when the country sent an under-23 team to the Asian Cup and managed to qualify for the quarter-finals, Iraqi teams have been grabbing their fair share of international headlines.

In 2004, the international media followed their Cinderella story at the Olympic Games in Athens as the same under-23 team reached the semi-finals of the Olympic football tournament and finished fourth.

But if Iraqi fans thought it could get no better, they were in for a pleasant surprise as Iraq won the silver medal in the football tournament at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.

Milan  - Marcello Lippi hasn't said much about it but he certainly won't be pulling any punches when he takes his world champion squad to the Confederations Cup that Italy play for the first time next June.

The event organized by football's ruling body FIFA has gradually evolved into a prestigious warm-up tournament taking place one year before the World Cup in the country that will host it.

From June 14 to 28 in 2009, South Africa will thus test its stadiums and infrastructure in a tournament reserved for eight teams from six continents.

Buenos Aires/Rio de Janeiro - Brazil are in far from their best form, and a divorce is evident between fans in the football- crazy South American country and the low-performance side led by coach Carlos Dunga.

However, the same team won the 2007 Copa America to earn the chance to defend their title at the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa.

Brazil have long failed to display the kind of fantasy game that made their football famous and turned "jogo bonito" into a global trademark.