In South Africa, the Cup is no game
The country took suggestions that it was behind on World Cup preparations for 2010 as a national insult, saying that such claims undermined its interests.
from the May 15, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
"When the Germans built the stadium for the World Cup finals, it took them longer than the time that's left for the South Africans, and remember, this is Germany!" says Tim Cohen, editor of the review section of The Weekender newspaper in Johannesburg.
"So you can understand, FIFA is taking a risk by giving the World Cup to [an African country] for the first time. It's absolutely a major event. Billions are involved," he says.
It's tempting, of course, to view the World Cup as "only a game." But holding a World Cup match in Africa, and particularly in South Africa, has meaning that goes beyond sports.
"If we succeed in organizing this event, we will give ourselves, as Africans, a voice and a face in the global arena, to change the terms of African identity with conflicts in Darfur, with catastrophe, with war," says Achille Mbembe, a professor of history and political science at Witswatersrand University in Johannesburg .
For South Africa, the stakes are even higher, he adds. "This is an opportunity for South Africa to control its identity as a transnational, plural nation, one of the only places on earth where the question of race has been dealt with. This is a chance to celebrate our diversity."
Soccer as national equalizer
In a sports-mad country like South Africa, soccer is one of the few truly level playing fields for blacks and whites.
Unlike rugby and cricket, which are dominated primarily by white Afrikaners or English-descendants, respectively, soccer is the closest thing to a universal sport.
On soccer fields around the country, whether in leafy private schools or in dusty township playgrounds, boys and girls hone their skills to become like local soccer heroes such as goalkeeper Rowen Fernandez (white), or a top scorer Kaizer Motaung Jr. (black).
Kaizer Motaung Sr., father of Kaizer Jr., and owner of the Soweto-based Kaizer Chiefs – the most successful professional soccer team in South Africa, if not the continent – says that the 2010 World Cup will have a huge effect, both in changing the world's attitude about Africa, and also changing the view of South Africans about themselves.
"South Africa has hosted a lot of major events in the last five years, from the Rugby World Cup to the Cricket World Cup," he says. "This is a chance to educate those who think that South Africa is backward. It can compare with any Western country in the world."
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