EIGHT WORLD WONDER

The African continent had celebrated in no small measure when south Africa was awarded the hosting rights of football’s biggest prize; the world cup. It was a sweet victory after a bitter and controversial defeat to Germany 8 years earlier; one which had shown the deep divisions amongst the sub-continental organizations which make up FIFA. The African continent had unsuccessfully wooed the Asian continent for its votes, but then it had the Asians had wanted its pound of flesh after Africa had failed to support its bid for the same competition some years back when Oceania had presented a joint bid with south Korea and Japan.

It’s two years to the start of the epoch making event and no one is absolutely certain if the FIFA world cup theme-song will be playing at the FNB stadium in Johannesburg or any other stadia in south-Africa. The xenophobic attacks on a large pan-African population in several of South-Africa’s urban settlements a few months back left a sour taste on the taste buds of several Africans leaving them wondering what happened to the solidarity marches the rest of Africa held in support of the ANC and tears of joy we shed when south Africa won the bid less than two decades after the demise of apartheid. A sports commentator in south Africa  recently wondered the fate of several sports tourists who would be in the country for a period of thirty days when fellow African brothers aren’t guaranteed of their safety. Worse still is Johannesburg’s high crime statistics; recent reports place Johannesburg in the A-list of crime nations, you are five most likely to be robbed, mugged or raped on the city’s streets than New York. These negative observations conceivably gave rise to rumors last year that the venue could be moved from Africa fanned spectacularly by German football great Franz Beckenbauer. south Africa’s deputy finance minister Jabu Moleketi had responded vehemently saying the critics had targeted the event to reflect their persistent negativity towards South Africa. On the back-thrust of this FIFA’s boss Sepp Blatter had echoed that South Africa was option A, B and C for the mundial. The football supremo was ready to turn a blind eye to the grave atrocities being recorded on country’s streets daily. But then South Africa was given a rude shock when FIFA revealed that three countries had been placed on stand-by for the 2010 world cup’s hosting; the South African nation had failed to heed the age-old maxim which says there’s no smoke without fire. Sepp Blatter had tried to allay South Africa’s fears by saying its routine practice. Now it will be fool-hardy for the South-Africa football governing body to dismiss Blatter’s comment except I now inexplicably speak Yiddish then I did not hear blatter say read my lips option A, B and C automatically means South-Africa, South-Africa and South-Africa. Jack Warner, a FIFA vice-president in 1995 had fooled local football wigs in Nigeria in December 1994 after concluding final inspection tours of stadia to host the FIFA under 21 youth championship that Nigeria had pulled a feat by getting everything in place, he said it was the eighth wonder of the world. Less than five months to the event’s kick-off FIFA unceremoniously pulled the rug off the country’s feet. It had based its revocation on reports of a break-out of cholera and meningitis in Kano and Enugu states. If SAFA thinks the under-21 world-cup is a different kettle of fish then she could enquire from Colombia who lost its hosting rights in 1986 to Mexico after a natural disaster occurred in the run-up to the world cup. Therefore rather than play to the gallery by treating this latest development as a political diatribe the local organizing committee would have to do more than its doing presently, for a start an aggressive media campaign and better collaboration with other African nations would not be too much work for the LOC. Next year every eye would be on the controversial Port –Elizabeth stadium which has to be ready for the confederation cup by every means possible, SAFA must produce for the continent an eight world wonder.

Aghogho, CONNECTAFRICA