6 years to clean up the mess

Not that any of this was of interest to the group in the house in the plush treelined Cinnamon Gardens district of Colombo. Any number of questions, however, came to mind. Unlike cricket with its large spread of demographic interest, football’s main following is that of the black majority. Even in the decade following the country’s first free elections, South African football has had a credibility problem and lost general support because of it; it is seen as a game divided by political as well as regional differences.

The local league and the South African Football Association (SAFA) have run into serious administration problems with two government judicial commissions probing allegations that it is a sport run by mafia-style bosses with corruption rife at all levels. One of the South African bid team — millionaire businessman Irvin Khoza — has been linked to some of the charges. Despite the commissions and their recommendations, criminal elements remain in place and they will look at the 2010 event to fatten their bank balances further. Those in charge at SAFA have long expressed concern with their inability to match the more professionally-run United Cricket Board’s development and transformation education and training programmes. These have created opportunities that SAFA have been unable to equal.

Simultaneously, over the past decade, the national team (known locally as Bafana Bafana, a Zulu term meaning ‘The Boys’) have become a joke. They have slipped from ninth to below 40th in the world rankings; in their last three African Cup attempts they have failed to reach the semi finals. In World Cup 2002, they were eliminated in the first round. This year they even lost to lowly Mauritius.

South Africa has only two major stadiums built for football. While there are smaller local venues — quite rundown — clubs have to hire the bigger rugby grounds to stage any high-profile derby. At all venues, security is a serious problem. It is at such derbies where more tickets are sold than there are seats available and leads to open confrontation among officials.

In 2002, it led to chaotic scenes that left more than 20 dead and the abandonment of the game at the Ellis Park rugby stadium. While it caused a public outcry, the findings of the subsequent investigation were largely kept quiet in fear of stalling the 2010 bid.

Whether South Africa has the infrastructure to host a sports event of this size is another matter. A Fifa delegation investigating venues and security matters seemed to be quite happy with what they saw. Whether this was because the same expertise and techniques used for CWC 2003 will be applied is uncertain, but it is known that the FIFA bid committee have been working hard in the field to ensure safety.

Plans are being made to build new stadiums. They have six years to do this but the problems remain. Will they redevelop existing facilities or build new ones? The problem with the new facilities is what to do with them when the event is over. If what followed the rugby World Cup is an example, the sport was not universally embraced, as cricket has been.