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World Cup Rights and Wrongs – Part Two |
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Rotation (Part Two
It’s Coming:
Africa needed the World Cup. It was an integral part of South African plans to improve and develop its infrastructures through hosting major sporting events – a plan that had been in place for many years culminating in the World Cup itself. “Through the hosting of events a country will develop world class infrastructure and good stadia and that is what is needed on the continent,” said Dr Danny Jordaan, the CEO of the Organising Committee of South Africa’s World Cup.
The rest of the continent has to make do with hosting the African Cup of Nations – itself an important tool in the development of Africa on and off the pitch. “I think that if you look at the African Cup of Nations [2008] the standard was very high with the number of stars playing here,” said Jordaan. “There was Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Samuel Eto’o, Frédéric Kanouté and the list just goes on. There were a lot of high quality players in each and every team and that shows that Africa will be a force to be reckoned with. Africa must be allowed to develop in world football.”
The same was true of Angola’s African Cup of Nations this January, but the means of bringing the World Cup to Africa and developing those infrastructures in South Africa has already been scrapped by FIFA. Rotation has been abandoned without a whimper, but why?
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Reporting Restrictions (Part Two) |
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Feeding Frenzy:
The World Cup is almost her and it will be big news, especially for African sport. Journalists will converge on South Africa from all over the world. The Organising Committee of South Africa’s World Cup knows that it must ensure that world-class facilities are provided, so stories can be dispatched rapidly to all parts of the globe, but they know what to expect. Their CEO, Dr Danny Jordaan, has observed several World Cup Finals, biding his time and making mental notes to stand his country in good stead when their time came.
France, Japan/South Korea and Germany provided invaluable material for the preparations, so how many journalists must they cater for? “I don’t really know,” Jordaan told us before adding an important proviso. “The World Cup in Germany had about 18,500.”
There will be even more interest in South Africa’s World Cup than usual as it is the first to take place in Africa – eighty years after Jules Rimet’s dream came true for the first time in Uruguay. Although the figure probably includes rights holders, it suggests that every possible angle that the World Cup could throw up will be covered. Well not quite.
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Reporting Restrictions (Part One) |
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Ludicrous:
We regret that that we cannot cover the World Cup as we had intended when we began our focus on African sport over two years ago. Despite assurances that accreditation procedures would not be the shambles that they had been in Ghana, we are disappointed to find that there is no place in South Africa’s World Cup for a national icon.
Our correspondent Aboobaker (Boebie) Williams has been victimised by ridiculous procedures again. He joined the magazine shortly after the African Cup of Nations in Ghana just over two years ago. Williams was at least spared the ludicrous accreditation procedures of that competition. He was in Ghana to support African football, not as journalist. Applications were submitted on time, but notification came at the last minute and then there was a mad rush to get visas and make arrangements, not to mention the traumatic experience of collecting credentials in Ghana.
Shambles:
Journalists almost rioted over the delays, which caused some to miss matches or have to go without accreditation. “At the beginning there were a few lapses in terms of accreditation,” former Black Stars defender and member of Ghana 2008’s Organising Committee, Anthony Baffoe told us, “but when the tournament got going I can say that we managed to get it done.”
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The Key to Success:
Unable to shift its allocation of World Cup tickets mainly due to prohibitive costs of travel to South Africa, subsistence and accommodation there, the FA was forced to return unsold tickets to FIFA, despite the manner of England’s qualification raising the expectations of supporters. Further sales in South Africa are now the key to making Africa’s World Cup a success. However, the organisers remain confident that the stadiums will be full and the atmosphere very special indeed. The final phase of tickets was completed recently.
The CEO of the Organising Committee, Dr Danny Jordaan believes that 450,000 visitors will be attracted to South Africa by the World Cup – probably more, but the key to the success of the World Cup will be attendances and that requires support from the South African people. “The cheapest tickets in Korea was fifty US dollars,” he says. “The cheapest ticket in Germany was twenty-six US dollars.” So what about South Africa? How will ticket prices cater for the poorest spectators?
Jordaan wants to make sure that poorer South Africans at least are not priced out of attending their World Cup. He insists that South Africa will do even better for the poorest South African fans that will make or break this World Cup. “The cheapest ticket in 2010 is twenty US dollars,” he said, “so we will make sure that a local fan will find it cheaper in 2010 than what it was in 2006. We have created a separate category.” But Jordaan understands that there is a limit to helping the poor. It cannot be extended to all Africans, however poor.
“Now the second question is that it cannot be all of the African football fans that get in for twenty US dollars, because if they must come from Tamale to go to Johannesburg to buy the twenty US dollars ticket to watch the Black Stars, they must have an airline ticket and must have accommodation, so one of the things probably is that there would be a inability to travel anywhere outside Tamale for the poor,” Jordaan explains. “The twenty dollar tickets are for South Africans.” But would that afreet the quality of their experience?
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A Surprise:
“They are a really, really good team,” said England manager Fabio Capello about Hassan Shehata’s Egypt. Hossam Ghaly received a kinder reception at Wembley than he used to get from Spurs fans at White Hart Lane. Despite his comparative success in the English Premier League last season, Amr Zaki paid the price of failure by his omission from the record-breaking African Cup of Nations squad.
Zaki returned to English football from Zamalek for the remainder of the season to try to help Hull City avoid relegation. It was enough to earn him a place on Egypt’s bench. Meanwhile, erstwhile team-mate Mido also returned to England – taking a pay cut to join West Ham United, but it was not enough to earn a recall
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