2009 was a great year for football in the movies, with The Damned United and Looking For Eric not only managing to not suck, but to actually be genuinely good. With a hard act to follow, 2010 is shaping up to be… well, not as good as 2009, with only a handful of football films due for release this year as film makers neglect the chance to cash in on the World Cup.

Africa10

This documentary tells the story of life and football in Africa in the build-up to the World Cup this summer. As the continent prepares to host the biggest sporting event in the world, the film makers focus on the ‘transformative power of soccer’, following the lives of “kids kicking a homemade ball in the street, to passionate fans, community activists, world leaders, aspiring young players and African legends of the game's past and present”, including Steven Pienaar, Emmanuel Adebayor and Roger Milla.

That Will.i.am guy from Black Eyed Peas has something to do with it, which we won’t hold against it. The film is due to be released in theatres, on television, DVD and via download the month before the World Cup. Watch the trailer at the official site.

The Magnificent Eleven

This upcoming soccer comedy is apparently a ‘modernisation’ of the classic western ‘The Magnificent Seven’, which itself was a take on ‘Seven Samurai’. The cowboys are a struggling amateur football team, the Indians run a nearby tandoori restaurant and the bandits are a bunch of thugs led by some guy called ‘Blonde Bob’. We haven’t made this up just to have another film to talk about, honest.

Directed by Irving Welsh, the author of ‘Trainspotting’, and with a reportedly strong script, this could be one to look out for. Production of the film has recently been delayed by a few months though, so this decidedly odd sounding football film won’t be with us for a while yet.