The bright lights of the World Cup do not discriminate. While exceptional performances by team or individual are in the spotlight to an adoring world audience, so too are those gaffes, lapses in judgment and the downright stupidity that seems to plague every World Cup.

Jamie Trecker looks at the players and personalities at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa who failed to deliver when those very lights shone brightest.

This was the World Cup that showed the emperors of the game have no clothes. Let’s start with the empty stadiums: FIFA overpriced the tickets, shutting local fans out, and the Great Recession kept tourists away. The officiating was wretched. Blatter came out strongly against replay technology, only to see two big teams screwed on bad calls. How about the ball? After brushing off numerous negative claims, FIFA was forced to admit they might have a point. By that time the Jabulani had become a running joke. Blatter painted himself into a corner over the vuvuzelas, which deafened players, drowned out fans, and ruined broadcasts. These horns destroyed the songs and flavor of South African football fans. Blatter’s unbending approach made a hash of the tournament, and revealed that for all of his bluster, he and his outfit don’t have a clue. In the long run, this may prove to be a blessing. In the short term, poor South Africa is stuck with the bill.

Green threw away his international career in one, heart-sickening moment. He made a classic schoolboy error in the nets, failing to get his body behind a weak shot by Clint Dempsey. We all know what happened next: the USA drew with England 1-1, Green was dispatched to the far end of the pine, and the newspapers had fun coming up with headlines like “Hand of Clod.” If this was an aberration — a Bill Buckner moment, if we may — we’d be tempted to feel sympathy for the West Ham 'keeper. But his career has been error-strewn, and he was a shock choice to start for England. Was Green another example of Fabio Capello’s incompetence? You decide.

France deserves whatever they got. Nigeria is a different story. The corruption that runs through their FA and their league is so rank that the president of the country pulled the plug on the entire program for the next two years. Chronically disorganized, Dickson Etuhu let slip the bombshell of the tournament when he said, after a loss, that under coach Lars Lagerbeck the team was better run than it had ever been — and Lagerbeck had only been in the job since March. Nigeria’s players and fans deserve better, but until the administrators who abet what appears to be widespread incompetence in the league and the Federation are vanquished, little will change. In classic fashion, FIFA is now threatening Nigeria with suspension for “governmental interference,” in an effort to protect the good old boys who ran the program into the ground in the first place. That’s the real joke.

It’s rare that you can condemn an entire team, but this World Cup we saw not one, but two egregious examples of sporting malfeasance. France never should have been in the Cup in the first place, and they were quickly revealed as a nasty, narcissistic bunch of malcontents who couldn’t shoot straight. For example: their star striker did everything but strike. Then, their captain led a strike against their coach. Their coach was clearly incompetent. And a team that was once the pride of a nation is so toxic that their own fans cheered against them on their final day of group stage play. Take a bow, France: this is what cheating got you.

The fact that no forward scored a goal for the USA is almost damning enough. But add in the fact that Altidore looked out of shape and displayed a horrid first touch on the ball, and you have to wonder what the future is for a kid that once looked very promising. He flamed out spectacularly at Hull, becoming better known for his lax training habits, his Twitter gaffes, and a ridiculous head butt that sent him packing instead of scoring goals. At the Cup, we saw more of the same: lots of complaints to the referees, little action up top to justify it. This kid needs to shape up.

Where to begin? The one-time captain of the team not only had a horrid tournament, but acted in a distinctly un-captainly manner by heading up a toxic locker room split. In retrospect, Terry’s inclusion in the team was a major mistake by Fabio Capello, who got a spoiled generalissimo instead of the defensive stalwart. Terry’s now-infamous press conference was full of veiled threats towards his manager, and his so-called “clear the air” talks turned out to be little more than hot air. Of course, had he shown up on the field, he’d be remembered as a guy who fought and perhaps told the truth. Since he didn’t, he’s seen as just a boor.

The leader of an awful Cameroon side did little to convince observers that he remains a top-tier world talent. He put on a world-class fit after a former player, Roger Milla, disparaged him — and was rewarded by his feckless coach, Paul le Guen, with the captain’s armband. Milla’s words look prescient, and Cameroon never looked anything close to the world-class team it could have been. Eto’o left the Cup with two goals — one a penalty — but his team left without any wins.

Torres never seemed to fully recover from his injuries, failing to give the Spanish real bite up top and only able to play about 60 minutes a game. There was none of the old explosiveness off the dribble, or the daring runs that made him such a handful when he was fit and healthy with Liverpool. It’s not his fault he got hurt, but that doesn’t mean his performance wasn’t a disappointment.

Kalou plain didn’t show up for Cote D’Ivoire, one of the tournament’s biggest disappointments. Kalou struggled with Chelsea last year, enduring a two-month goalless drought, but finally came to life at the end of the year and helped lead his side to another Premier League crown. No such luck at the World Cup, where his lone goal came when his team was already out of the tournament. With teammate Didier Drogba injured, Cote D’Ivoire needed him to step his game up. He didn’t.

The old Italian warrior just didn’t have it this tournament. Looking his age, Cannavaro was unable to marshal his troops in three lackluster outings that saw the defending champs finish dead last in their group. He personally got smoked by New Zealand’s Shane Smeltz and was exposed badly by Slovakia. And, as the captain, he exited the World Cup as the face of a team that time had clearly passed by. It’s a shame, but that’s football.