From what I have heard, South Africa has been the location of many ethnic conflicts. In the past, ethnic conflicts here have been very prevalent. One of the most obvious and most famous examples of this is apartheid. Apartheid was a legal system of segregation administered for the first time in 1948. This system classified all residents as one of four ethnicities: black, white, coloured, and Indian. Under apartheid, everyone who was black was practically completely isolate from the whites. One example of this was that residential zones were separated by race, whether that separation was done willingly or forcefully. In addition, blacks and whites had almost everything separate. These segregated social aspects included medical care, education, facilities, and many other things, and needless to say, the blacks' utilities were of much lower quality. As if that wasn't enough, to add insult to injury, the blacks were no longer even considered citizens of South Africa. It is no surprise to me that apartheid caused many protests, uprisings, and even riots. What is surprising is that even this did not put and end to apartheid. Apartheid continued to be completely relevant in South Africa until 1994, which is most likely due to the fact that any anti-apartheid leaders were imprisoned and all who opposed apartheid were banned. Luckily for everyone, in 1994, there was a change in the party in power when the ANC won the election with 62.65% of the votes. The ANC abolished apartheid, but remnants of it can still be seen in South Africa. It is great now that my teammates and I can compete in a place that is much more tolerant now than it was just 16 years ago, even though there is still some racial conflict. Being that we are from Slovenia, and are all white, apartheid wouldn't have affected us all that much anyways, but it makes all of us feel much more comfortable in a less segregated country.

My name is Robert Koren a team member of the Slovenian Football team. My whole team is cheering my on to win the game. First our team has a paid flight to South Africa where the World Cup is being held. Specifically we are flying to Polokwane, a South African city. The Stadium that we will be playing at is called the Peter Makaba Stadium. Our first game of the Cup is going to be held on June 13th at 1:30 p.m. against Algeria. I am sure that this will not be an easily won game but I am confident that we will show the audience a game to remember. If we manage to win we will be playing against the United States of America. The hotel we will be staying at is call "Haenertsburg", we picked this one be it was the closest hotel that we could find to the stadium. I've heard that in some parts of South Africa are starting to be at their technological prime. With sky scrapers that move with the wind, building at resist environment not environment resisting them. This is much unlike my home country, Slovenia. Here most buildings are kept looking like our past culture. But South Africa is not all sky scrapers, there are still many people living in the lower class and many cities are still under development like Slovenia. If you visit us you will soon see that we are not in our technological prime. I am certain that our stay in South Africa will be a welcome and life changing event.

As both a Slovenian citizen and a member of the national football team of Slovenia, football is a major part of my life. We Slovenians love the game of football, and our team has a huge local following. Slovenians are complete football fanatics and in fact were elated as a whole when our national team won the qualifying match that allowed us entry into the European Championships in 2000. I cannot wait until I arrive in South Africa for a shot at the Fifa World Cup. I expect that the people there will be hospitable and the culture will be a sight to see. It will be interesting to see all of the poverty in the area, as well as the villages and towns. I am not sure exactly how my country will react if we were able to leave South America victorious, but I am positive that everyone would be celebrating. Because this would be an unprecedented event there is no way to know for sure what would occur, but there is not a doubt in my mind that all of Slovenia will be extremely excited. I would expect that I, along with he other members of the team, would receive much praise and perhaps even some rewards. If we were to lose in Fifa, Slovenians would undoubtedly be upset, especially considering that our team and football in general has a huge following. We might lose some fans, but in the long run I don't think that there will be any major consequences. After a few months, it would most likely blow over and we would be looking forward our next chance at a major victory.

Slovenia. Officially called the Republic of Slovenia, was established in 1954. It is approximately 20,273 square kilometers and borders Italy, on the west, the Adriatic Sea, on the southwest, Croatia, on the south and east, Hungary, on the northeast, and Austria, on the North. The capital is Ljubljana. The population is 2.06 million people. Around 40% of Slovenia's landmass is elevated, in the form of mountains and plateaus, and is located in the interior regions of the country. The first match the Slovenia National Football team played was in 1992. Before that they played for the Yugoslavia national football team. Slovenia entered there first international tournament in 2000 at the UEFA Euro 2000, where they surprised the masses when they beat Ukraine in the qualifiers. They then impressed the off guard masses drawing with Yugoslavia and Norway only losing to Spain 2-1.They did not lose a signal match in the Qualifiers, but they did not do well in the finals not scoring a signal point. Even though they did not qualify for the 2006 World Cup, they were the only team to beat Italy on home turf as Italy went on to win the championship. In November 2009, Slovenia beat down Russia to clinch a playoff spot in the 2010 Fifa World Cup. The head coach is Matjaz Kek. Their top scorer is Zlatko Zahovic. Zlatko Zahovic places the position Attacking Midfielder and is 39! Yeah!