Knowledge legacy of the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa

South Africa competed to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup and justified the bid because the World Cup™ would purportedly mean that some important legacies would prevail in the nation. Substantial efforts about the bid focused on the economic impacts it would have, but a broader spectrum of social, environmental, and political lessons also entered the collection of mega-event legacies. The one legacy that has not yet joined the discussion is the knowledge legacy of the event. Therefore, this chapter aims to sketch the knowledge legacy of the 2010 World Cup (2010-WC). A systematic search for peer-reviewed research published during and 5 years after the World Cup was conducted and 185 articles that addressed the 2010-WC and fell within the established search criteria were identified. This investigation aimed to determine the theme and number of academic articles relevant to the 2010-WC, the geographical location of the authors of these publications, the journals that published these articles, the nature of the articles, the methodology used by the researchers, and the population under investigation. The results show that the 2010-WC attracted many investigators from different fields and countries and that the knowledge legacy of the 2010-WC might be one of the greatest legacies of this event. The study concludes with a plea for more significant interdisciplinary research networks, funding opportunities, and a central registry of research outputs.