Very soon, the world’s largest and most glamorous event will kick off at Soccer City in Johannesburg. Thousands in the stadium and billions watching on television will witness the World Cup taking place on African soil for the first time.
Very soon, the world’s largest and most glamorous event will kick off at Soccer City in Johannesburg. Thousands in the stadium and billions watching on television will witness the World Cup taking place on African soil for the first time.
We will be leading the continent onto the fi eld and indeed into history in a bid to show that Africa is more than capable of hosting and performing well at a World Cup.
It’s the stuff that great stories are made of. Over the past months, this column has taken a critical look at what hosting the tournament has meant for South Africans, the likely (and sometimes unlikely) effects of the event, and the potential the World Cup holds for the country and the continent at large.
Some pieces have been negative, others positive and hopeful. Some have focussed on the politics of the tournament while others have looked at the game itself.
Concerns surrounding the environmental, labour, economics and development have all been given attention, in some way or another so as to present a weighted idea of the hosting of the World Cup entails and what needs to be considered.
The time for consideration and critique, however, is over. Whether we like it or not, in a few days, the World Cup will begin with the eyes of the world upon us.
South Africans around the country have already been swept up in football fever and, if channelled properly, this can translate into an important nation-building exercise, unprecedented in magnitude and strength.
The Rugby World Cup in 1995 is often used as an example of what sport can do for the spirit and social development of a country, but the Fifa World Cup will bring with it a potential that is incomparable to that of the tournament staged here 15 years ago.
The World Cup this year will not only serve as a vindication of the struggles of South Africa to be recognised as equals on the fi eld but off it as well.
Winning the right to host the tournament has shown the world that Africa will not allow itself to be benched. At the World Cup this year, Africa, its players, and its people can fi nally become the stars of the show.
The rugby tournament in 1995 united a nation in its infancy, but 2010 will be able to show the coming of age of not only the country but of the continent as well.
The stadiums are ready, the tickets are sold and the teams are here. The last and most important part of the story that is yet to be written isn’t going to depend on how the teams and players perform.
It will depend on our ability as South Africans to unite, to show the world how far we’ve come, and to turn the hosting of the event into a building-block that we can be proud to say we were a part of.
