Sunday 10 January 2010

Don't overreact, Africa is ready to host the World cup


Separatist rebel bandits who fired at the Togolese bus, leaving three dead and eight wounded in the Angolan province of Cabinda,have somehow taken the gloss off the spectacle that awaits the world in South Africa - come June 2010.The Africa cup of nations in Angola is meant to be a curtain raiser to the actual football mania - the FIFA world cup.This isolated and unfortunate incident has raised questions as to Africa's capacity to host the football spectacle.Jason Curtis, a friend of mine wrote on his blog that South Africa could be in for a rude awakening.Jason's tone on the blog clearly suggests that FIFA might have made a mistake in awarding the spectacle to Africa.

Yes football might have been invented by an Englishman but it was perfected by the boys from Rio De Janeiro.And the samba boys have won the world cup five times - all away from home soil.

If hosting football tournaments was based on precedents then England and German would have been hosting the showcase every four years, since 1966.South Africa is arguably Africa's economic powerhouse and doubting it's capacity to host the tournament defeats the purpose of a rotational system adopted by Sepp Blatter, since he took over from Joao Havelange.



We must remember that the Togolese entourage was attacked in the Oil rich province of Cabinda, where rebel groups reign terror.Cabinda is inhabited by one third of refugees from the war ravaged Democratic republic of Congo.There is obviously an invisible hand that bankrolled the bandits to carry out such a deplorable act.This might have been designed to obliterate the tournament and prove a point that Africa is never ready and was never ready to host the world cup.



South Africa is quite a young democracy after decades of oppression and we can not expect it to host the world cup like any other European country.That is the reason why FIFA dispelled suggestions to ban the vuvuzelas.Africa should host the showcase in a typical African way.As for the security fears,i suppose South Africa has the potential to surprise all who doubt its capabilities.South Africa hosted the rugby world cup in 1995 and nothing atrocious happened - what would make the difference this time?South African media laws are probably the best in the world - that is the reason why people read about all the murders,rapes and robberies.

However,because some people might want to prove FIFA wrong, we might see an incident similar to the Togolese debacle.

After the withdrawal of Togo from the Africa cup of nations, some pundits even suggested that the tournament should be made redundant!What a subjective view?It will be just as good as scrapping the Euro football tournament.

The greatest statesman of our generation Nelson Mandela can not be denied a chance to see the world cup in his own backyard.Hola Mzansi!Hola!

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