Africa’s World Cup: A sporting milestone

Friday, June 11, 2010, will mark another milestone in Africa’s history and in global sporting evolution. For on that day, the 2010 FIFA World Cup will open at Soccer City in Johannesburg, the first time that this competition will be played on African soil. It took 72 years after the inception of the World Cup in 1930 for it to be hosted outside Europe or the Western hemisphere (jointly by Japan and South Korea in 2002), but a short eight years afterwards, the mantle has been handed to Africa.{{more}} For a continent which did not even appear on the radar screen of world football until 1974, winning the bid to host this most prestigious of tournaments by 2010 represents a remarkable achievement indeed.

That achievement is being welcomed as Africa’s coming of age. Not surprisingly, it is South Africa, Africa’s most developed nation, but perhaps the most striking example of the contradiction between resource richness and abject poverty, which is bearing Africa’s pioneering flag. It is no stranger to hosting global sporting events, having done so for rugby (1995) and cricket (2007), but this is on a far grander scale requiring massive organisational and mobilisation efforts. In undertaking these, South Africa is literally carrying the weight of the entire continent on its shoulders, as its success in them will be considered an indicator of Africa’s maturity.

For many persons, the 2010 World Cup is relegated to simplistic footballing terms. The big issues for them are the performances of the African star players and whether an African team can win the World Cup. The presence of five African teams in the finals – Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Africa – means that Africa’s chances of golden glory are higher than the past. In addition, the continent’s representatives have in their ranks some of the world’s top stars, the likes of Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o, the Toure brothers and Michael Essien, who are all on par with their counterparts from Europe and South America. Their chances of victory, though, have been made more difficult as a result of the draw in the respective groups. Ivory Coast for instance, will have to compete with Brazil, Portugal and North Korea in Group G, Ghana has Germany and Serbia to contend with, Nigeria’s opponents include Argentina and South Korea, Cameroon face a red-hot Netherlands, Denmark and Japan, and the host-nation’s opponents are France, Uruguay and Mexico. Plenty of work, just to qualify for the next stages!

While these footballing issues are undoubtedly of psychological significance, there are a number of even more important social and economic issues. An interesting article in the GUARDIAN newspaper, London, on May 22 last, by Dave Runciman, raises some of these which I would like to share with readers. He began by quoting South Africa’s former President, Thabo Mbeki, in a letter to FIFA’s President Sepp Blatter, the man credited with much of the praise for ensuring a World Cup on African soil.

“We want, on behalf of our continent, to stage an event that will send ripples of confidence from the cape to Cairo…We want to ensure that one day historians will reflect upon the 2010 World Cup as a moment when Africa stood tall and resolutely turned the tide on centuries of poverty and conflict…”

That is a huge ask for South Africa, in spite of the support and goodwill towards it. There have been impressive achievements in building 27 venues on time, in line with international standards. South Africa’s security, accommodation, transport and infrastructural services will be severely tested over the next six weeks with the massive influx of visitors. Expectations for the post-tournament benefits to the African populace will be high but experience has shown that host countries rarely get the economic boost as anticipated and as warranted by their gargantuan investments, in material and human resource terms. Already, there are questions about the lasting legacy and to what use the magnificent stadia built for the tournament, will be put. Use for rugby and cricket matches has been mooted.

By contrast the tournament has already generated an estimated US$3.3 billion for FOFA’s coffers, and a lot of people are going to become much richer as a result, most of them non-African. Where will it leave the teeming millions wallowing in poverty in the townships of the same cities hosting the grand event? South Africa’s infrastructure will undoubtedly benefit, but when the magic wears off, people are going to enquire “Where are the houses, electricity, doctors, food..?”

Worryingly, Runciman points to international precedents which have relevance for South Africa. Greece, heavily burdened by debt and being rent asunder by social conflict as a result is the most poignant one. Let me quote Runciman here:

“The Athens Olympics of 2004, which may in the long run have helped to bring the global financial system to its knees, is the role model here. The Greek economy wasn’t bankrupted by the cost of hosting the Games. But Greece’s promises to reform the way of doing business, to meet the criteria of euro membership, had to be put on hold in the desperate rush to get the facilities built on time….”

South Africa will do well to learn the lessons.

(Final Part, next week)

Renwick Rose is a community activist and social commentator.