The FIFA World Cup might still be a year away, but the hotel room crunch is already being felt. The 2010 tournament comes to the African continent next June for the first time in its 80-year history, but host nation South Africa is struggling to come up with the 55,000 rooms needed for fans. Some of the snootier hotels have, well, seen what fútbol crowds can be like, and they aren't participating in the event's housing program, run by the company Match.At present, Match is nearly 20,000 rooms short of what it needs, so the company is working with guest houses and bed & breakfasts for the first time. A recent CNN newscast (included below) even noted there's talk that university dorms and cruise ships might be needed or that some tourney guests will have to stay in the neighboring island nation of Madagascar. Yeah, like the DreamWorks movie.
Match says it's confident that everything will work out, but if you have your heart set on attending the 19th World Cup games, there's no time to book your hotel like the present. Otherwise, you might just be commuting in from an entirely different country.
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