Cape Town and Durban will miss out on the 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup.
The Mother City is dithering over the construction of its 2010 World Cup stadium and Durban's brand-new one simply won't be ready in time.
Described by the head of Fifa's South Africa office, Michael Palmer, as a "hugely important" trial run a year ahead of the World Cup proper, the Confederations Cup is an eight-team tournament which will feature 2006 World Cup champions Italy, 2010 hosts South Africa and the winners of the next European, South American, Concacaf, African, Oceania and Asian championships.
Brazil won the 2005 Confederations Cup, beating Argentina 4-1 in the final in Frankfurt, with Germany, Japan, Tunisia, Mexico, Australia and Greece also taking part in the 16-game tournament.
Cape Town and Durban - expected to be extremely popular 2010 locations given their tourist attractions - will miss out on this dry run for 2010, with South Africa's 2010 Fifa World Cup Local Organising Committee (LOC) having earmarked Gauteng's Soccer City, Ellis Park and Loftus stadiums, North West's Royal Bafokeng and the Free State Stadium as the designated 2009 venues.
All the upcountry stadiums selected for the Confederations Cup are already in place and will only require upgrades ahead of 2010, whereas brand new stadiums are to be built in Cape Town and Durban.
The 2010 LOC's Danny Jordaan said the five stadiums chosen for the Confederations Cup met Fifa requirements for the World Cup dress rehearsal.
Durban has already started construction on a proposed R1,6-billion stadium next to the King's Park Stadium, while Cape Town's 2010 plans have been hampered by political haggling.
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille last week said it would cost R3,2-billion to build a 2010 World Cup stadium in Green Point and an additional R1,1-billion to upgrade the surrounding infrastructure.
Zille said the city had only R400-million available from its own coffers for the project and that the rest of the finance would have to come from Fifa or national government.
The South African government has thus far budgeted about R5,5-billion towards the construction and upgrading costs of the 10 venues that will be required to host the 2010 World Cup.
Germany's 2005 Confederations Cup attracted 575 000 spectators and 3 200 journalists and was beamed live to 170 countries, so the 2009 event will be a major chance to showcase South Africa's 2010 World Cup cities and will also be a big test of the country's capacity around issues such as transport, accommodation and stadiums.
It will also provide the 2 000 volunteers required for the event, a taste of just what they're in for come 2010.
"To me the Confederations Cup is hugely important. Everybody has a perception of how things will run at a World Cup, but if you can do it for real, it really helps," Fifa's Palmer said in a recent interview.
Palmer was in charge of the test event programme ahead of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, running 42 international events in the 18 months ahead of the Sydney Olympics by way of preparation for the real thing.