FIFA 2010 World Cup: A victory for South Africa?
The 2010 World Cup has just ended and even though the football was not that great the entire spectacle of the tournament was amazing. South Africa is a beautiful place and the fans, teams and journalists that went there had a great time. The stadiums were fantastic and the country was a very gracious host. Even though the country had to endure one of the worst finals in the history of the World Cup, it and its people took it all in their stride. There are major problems in South Africa, but this one tournament did more to boost the perception and image of the African nation in the minds of people than anything else could have.
The actual game that was played as part of the World Cup really was not much to talk about and the quality of the football was not that great. Refereeing controversies, the Jabulani ball that would not allow players to score and a final that almost made people turn the TV off, all made this World Cup a serious football disappointment, but the tournament shone in many other ways. The huge number of visitors that descended upon the country saw a new side to South Africa; they experienced its beauty, its hospitality and the wonderful new stadiums that were built. The other aspect of the experience of the visitors to the country was the interaction they had with the young people who made up the volunteers and who were all around the stadium whenever a match was being played. These young people helped to change people’s perception of what they thought South Africa was like.
The World Cup saw a huge number of tourists come to the country solely for the tournament, but the government and the tourism board feel that the World Cup has the power to enhance tourism many years after the event has ended. The general feeling was that tourism would increase as a result of the World Cup. People would be talking about the event for a long time to come and this would entice other people to visit the country. 2009 was a harsh year for South African tourism, and a lot of travel and tour operators saw a large chunk of their bookings cancelled. They were all optimistic that because of the World Cup people would now see South Africa as a viable and exciting tourist destination.
Not everyone is optimistic that anything will change in the country though. Many say that things in the country have been the same since Apartheid, things like poverty, racial divisions and unemployment pressure for black citizens. Nothing has really changed in the many years since the brutality of Apartheid ended. By some estimates, unemployment is at 25% officially, maybe even higher unofficially. With the world’s biggest sporting event coming to the country, people thought that it would bring with it prosperity and change. It did not have the desired effect. Yes tourism will increase and the citizens of the country have got a lot of nice new stadiums to look at, but there has been no real change in poverty and unemployment figures. Maybe nothing could have happened to them because at the end of the day the World Cup is a football tournament and not an economic forum. Hopefully the future will bring about tourism and that will help to boost the economy of the country.
We should not count out the power of football though and the surge a tournament like the World Cup can have on a country. The 2010 tournament itself was free of any serious crimes, went off without a hitch and gave South Africa a publicity boost that will come in handy in the years to come. The government plans to use this publicity boost to tackle the serious problems of unemployment, AIDS and substandard educational systems. It will be great if the country can really use the leverage from the Cup to help the many problems that plague it at the moment. So it does look like a sports event does have the power to bring about social change.
It will be a very positive sign if the payoff from the World Cup is felt by those individuals that need it the most in South Africa. Hopefully the organisers will be able to extract as much benefit in terms of social change as they can from the publicity generated from the event. Now it is time to look forward to Brazil in 2014 and see how the World Cup can make life better for the poor in that country.
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