Although the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ is only kicking off in June 2010, South Africa is already seeing the rewards for playing host to the world next year.

Now in its third year of operation in South Africa, the annual Soccerex convention today announced the schedule for this year's event, which will take place in Gauteng province from 28 November to 2 December 2009.

The convention has been hosted in Johannesburg since 2007 - a fact mainly attributed to South Africa's hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Focusing on the business of football, the convention is a global event that sees the world's most experienced football business professionals come to share their knowledge about the business end of the beautiful game with networking, not goal scoring, being the name of the game.

For the Chief Executive Officer of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa (OC), Dr Danny Jordaan, Soccerex is one of the benefits of hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup and will certainly have massive legacy benefits for South African football.

"We often talk about South Africa's isolation in terms of playing sport but the officials and businesses which look after the administration and marketing of the game were also isolated. They must be part of the discussion about what is going on in sport around the world so that South African football can be better served," said Jordaan, referring to South Africa's isolation during the apartheid era, which saw sports and business being excluded from the world scene for many years until the early 1990's.

For the man at the helm of the OC, Soccerex is also an important event for the entire African continent.

"This is an important conversation for African football if we want to be part of the global football economy," continued Jordaan who stressed the importance of Soccerex for not only networking and business deals, but also to learn from the experiences of others around the world.

Although South Africa has much to learn from the influx of experienced speakers and delegates during Soccerex, this year the country will also be sharing its experience.

"This Soccerex we have all the Brazilian cities hosting the 2014 World Cup coming here to learn from South Africa," said the Chief Executive Officer of Soccerex, Duncan Reeve who will be moving the convention to the South American country from next year.