Bob Skinstad

South Africa 2010 will be a World Cup of hope not fear

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By Oliver Holt 4/11/2009

Read Oliver Holt’s column every Wednesday on Mirror.co.uk

Nine years ago, the sports editor of The Star newspaper in Johannesburg sent two of his young reporters, Jermaine Craig and Matshelane Mamabolo, to intercept me when I arrived at the airport.

He suspected, correctly, that I had come with the intention of writing about how South Africa’s crime rate ought to sabotage its chances of beating England to the honour of hosting the 2006 World Cup.

Jermaine and Matshelane showed me around. For a start, they introduced me to one of their colleagues. I had been briefed about him back in England and told he’d been shot when he was carjacked at traffic lights. Turned out that was the first lie.

I had a fantastic week. I went into Soweto, I ate at one of the row of restaurants in Melville, a buzzing, cosmopolitan suburb. I stayed in a lovely hotel.

I had lunch at a place in downtown Joburg that was one of Nelson Mandela’s favourite restaurants before he was imprisoned.

I went to watch Tembisa Classic, a Premier League team based in one of the townships, play Orlando Pirates. The atmosphere was one of the best I’ve ever been in.

So I wrote a different kind of article to the one I’d expected to write and I stayed in touch with my friends, Jermaine and Matshelane.

Matshelane is the editor of a football supplement called Shoot.

He flew to Madrid last week to interview Cristiano Ronaldo.

And Jermaine, well, he met me at another airport this week when a group of English journalists flew in to Cape Town on a FIFA-sponsored trip to look at the preparations for next summer’s tournament.

He’s the media manager for the World Cup 2010 organising committee. He’s an accomplished guy who’s clearly good at his job. He and Matshelane are two of the success stories of the new South Africa.

I didn’t come with the intention of trying to knock the South African World Cup this time. Why would I? The two stadia I’ve seen so far, Green Point in Cape Town and the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, will go straight into the top 10 most spectacular football stadia in the world when the tournament starts.

They’re both stunning. The Moses Mabhida is Wembley but with real style and imagination. It has an arch, too, but this arch has a funicular railway running over it that can accommodate 25 people. And Green Point? Well, its situation helps. It stands on the shores of Table Bay, between Robben Island and Table Mountain. It, too, is a breathtaking sight.

Both stadia are a few weeks away from being ready. In fact, all the stadium projects have been beacons of competence alongside the shambles that was Wembley. But the accusation that won’t go away, the one thing South Africa’s critics won’t give up on, is that crime will ruin Africa’s first World Cup.

Last week, reports suggested the Germany squad was so concerned about the situation they were going to wear bullet-proof vests.

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One English reporter was so alarmed, understandably, by some of the pieces she read about the Confederations Cup here last summer that she wrote a blog about how terrified she was at the prospect of covering the World Cup.

Travel companies are busy putting together complex security packages to safeguard visitors when they land in this war zone. One is using Somalia as a reference point. I spoke to Jermaine and Matshelane about it. Jermaine pointed out the obvious things: That most of the crime takes place in the shanty towns where people live in terrible conditions and that an extra 32,000 policemen will be drafted in to help protect fans just in case.

Because of his position, he has to be circumspect. Matshelane, robbed when he covered the 2006 World Cup in Germany, does not.

“The security aspect of South Africa is being highly exaggerated by the Europeans who just cannot accept that we are going to host the World Cup,” he said.

“Yes, ours can be a pretty unsafe country. But as the Confederations Cup proved, there is no need for any international journo to be travelling around in armoured vehicles.

“We have tourists from all over the world coming to South Africa every week and most of them can be seen roaming the streets of Joburg or Soweto and other parts of our country carrying their cameras.

“Crime is often petty and opportunistic but it ridiculous to make out our country is some type of a war zone. The World Cup is going to be one heck of a party and the sooner your countrymen stop being ridiculous about it, the better.”

Far from encouraging a siege mentality in visitors to the World Cup, the city authorities in Durban and Cape Town are encouraging supporters to walk to the stadium.

And when they mentioned in Cape Town that there was a police station with cells inside Green Point Stadium, it was a small reminder that they have more right to be afraid of European supporters than European supporters have to be afraid of them.

The sad thing is that this paranoia about security spectacularly misses the point about staging the World Cup in South Africa. It is about widening football’s horizons and about improving the lives of some who live here in poverty.

Call that idealistic if you want but listen to Mark Fish, the former South Africa and Bolton defender. “This World Cup is all about how it will affect the man on the street in our country,” he said yesterday.

“The money the tournament makes must go towards housing more South Africans and moving towards a situation where each South African has a roof over their head.”

Maybe time will prove me a fool but I’m not worried about security here. I don’t go out on foot after dark. I don’t go out alone. I don’t go into areas known to be dangerous.

I want to enjoy the World Cup, not be a prisoner of it. It’s going to be a great celebration, a gateway for a new generation of South Africans like Jermaine and Matshelane.

Read the rest of Oliver Holt’s column here – and come back every Wednesday for more

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this came via @brand_sa – lovely positive article , good stuff guys, nice and balanced approach from the UK – thanks

No panic, as French loom large

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:48

There is no panic in the Springbok camp after last Friday’s unexpected and disappointing loss by the Dirt Trackers side to the Leicester Tigers, but there is a great awareness of the challenge awaiting them in the Test against France in Toulouse on Friday night.

The Test will be a special game for Springbok assistant coach Dick Muir, who was the coach in charge of the losing team against the Tigers and also a member of the last Springbok side to win in France.

That was in 1997 when the team, under Nick Mallet, outplayed the French 52-10 in Paris.

Since then the Boks have lost all three of their away matches against France – 10-20 in Paris in 2001, 10-30 in Marseilles the following year and 20-26 in 2005, again in Paris.

Just how difficult France as opponents are is reflected by the fact that the Boks have won only two matches and drawn one against them since 1997, with five wins going to France.

While Springbok coach Peter de Villiers said it was an eye-opener to lose against the Tigers, Bok forward coach Gary Gold emphasised the danger posed by the French pack in particular at a media conference on Monday.

“There are more positives than negatives in the loss,” said De Villiers.

“Now we know where we’re going. We knew it would be tough with only a week’s preparation.

“It was an eye-opener, but if we didn’t have the game we wouldn’t have known [what we do now].

“One of the problems we have agreed upon is that of leadership. We now know to address that,” he said in a discussion where it was made very clear that the management was looking beyond 2011.

Gold warned that the French were “an emotional team, with a lot of passion.

“They have a big strong pack and they will be very physical.”

He twice compared them to the New Zealand pack.

“They’re the one  team in the world with New Zealand who can match our forwards with size,” he said, after he had earlier mentioned that he agreed with De Villiers that France are as tough as the All Blacks.

“They’ll be playing in a small stadium – and if a French side comes out firing they can rip the heart out of anybody.”

De Villiers admitted it was a great challenge. “France is one of our goals on the tour,” he said.

* The Springboks on Monday had a morning training run. Adi Jacobs was at inside centre as expected despite speculation that the bigger, more physical Jaque Fourie would be used on the inside.

In the scrummaging session it also looked as if the replacements from the Free State, Adriaan Strauss and Wian du Preez, had a cohesion which would not be out of place even against the strongest opposing scrum.

* The Springboks leave for Toulouse on Tuesday night where they will join up with the Springbok midweek team who will have to return to England for their match against Saracens next Tuesday.

The side to play France in Friday night’s Test will be announced on Tuesday, with two changes at loose forward expected because of the injuries to Pierre Spies and Juan Smith.

Jacobs at inside centre for Jean de Villiers, who now plays for Munster, and Zane Kirchner should be the fullback in place of Frans Steyn, who has opted for club rugby in France.

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The french are nightmare to play against becasue you just don’t know who will turn up , but the Boks are going to be fired up and ready !