South Africa last night emerged as slight favourites to win the race to stage the 2010 World Cup but face a nerve-racking contest against challengers Morocco in today's vote.

The two African countries ended a day of presentations to FIFA's executive committee in Zurich with Morocco having gained some ground on their main rivals following Tunisia's decision to pull out of the running and back their fellow Arab state.

South Africa's bid still remains the most likely to succeed, if only by the narrowest of margins, and their best hope lies in winning an outright majority among FIFA's 24 executive committee members in the first round of voting in the Swiss city this morning.

Both countries assembled teams of famous faces to back their claims to stage the 2010 tournament. South Africa's line-up was the more impressive, with Nelson Mandela, fellow Nobel peace prize winners Archbishop Desmond Tutu and FW de Klerk here in Zurich along with president Thabo Mbeki.

Morocco had to make do with foreigners - Spain's former prime minister Felipe Gonzalez and Senegal president Abdoulaye Wade - plus statements of support from Real Madrid stars Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo.

South Africa, at one stage runaway favourites to stage the tournament, do fear a late challenge from Morocco who have won important political support among FIFA's inner circle.

They lost the race for 2006 by just one vote to Germany. The 2010 vote is also too close to call - one senior FIFA predicted a 13-11 victory for Morocco while an executive committee member makes South Africa the victors by the same margin.

What no one disputes is this is a two-horse race; the other two runners, Egypt and Libya, are so far behind it will be a surprise if they muster more than a single vote between them.

South Africa have the edge in that the report by FIFA's technical inspectors rated their bid as the best overall. They are also thought to have the backing of FIFA president Sepp Blatter whose influence over executive committee members is stronger than ever.

Morocco, though, have won admirers from Asian members of the committee and from Michel Platini of France and Spain's Angel Villar Llona. Their bid is also backed by the hugely-wealthy Moroccan royal family - so much so, the country's football association has had minimal involvement.

Whoever wins, FIFA will aim to take the credit for awarding the world's biggest sporting event to the world's poorest continent. Under their new rotation system, 2010 was always going to Africa and the World Cup will be staged in South America in 2014.

Danny Jordaan, South Africa's bid leader, believes their experience in staging the cricket and rugby world cups within the last decade should be a deciding factor. "If you look at event management expertise, no other country can compete with South Africa," he said. "We also have the number one ranking in the FIFA technical report.

"We have successfully staged 11 major events over the past decade, all of them safe and secure."