The article is premised with "IF they fall further behind." Nothings getting moved yet.
Other SA news bring up some intersting issues though:
Controversial old SA flag may be banned from 2010 World Cup events
Herald correspondent
THE old South African flag should be banned during Soccer World Cup matches in 2010, parliamentary committees heard yesterday.
The issue was raised when MPs began considering legislation to provide Fifa with a platform to manage South Africa‘s hosting of the 2010 tournament.
Sports and Recreation ministry legal adviser Gideon Boshoff proposed a clause related to the singing of national anthems and the carrying of flags.
He said this could carry the proviso that the old South African flag be proscribed – effectively preventing the carrying of the flag by members of a match audience.
ANC MP Lanval Reid and DA MP Donald Lee asked whether this was necessary.
Asked if this would apply to the crowd or just the official activities of a national side, Boshoff said it was envisaged that this would apply to the control of the crowd.
The National Assembly Sports and Recreation committee, in conjunction with the National Council of Provinces Select Committee on Education and Recreation, were discussing the 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa Special Measures Bill.
The bill also provides for no-go zones for traffic and the facilitation of easier visa approval processes.
It also provides for the declaration of a World Cup stadium venue by the minister of sport and recreation.
A second bill – which deals with provincial competencies relating to trade and industry matters and to the governing of medicine use – is also to be considered by the committees.
World Cup guarantees to be sorted out in Parliament
Published in: Legalbrief Today
Date: Thu 13 July 2006
The twin threats posed by BEE and liquor marketing laws to Fifa 2010 Soccer World Cup guarantees are to be thrashed out by the chairmen of Parliament’s two committees responsible for sport and the National Sports Department.
A Business Day report notes the planned discussions follow public hearings on the 2010 Fifa World Cup Special Measures Bills, during which the Trade and Industry Department undertook to exempt Fifa and its commercial partners from black empowerment requirements and liquor marketing laws. The two special measures Bills are designed to give effect to the guarantees that government has given to Fifa in terms of venues, access control, ambush marketing and how Fifa’s corporate partners would operate in SA. MPs on both committees wanted to know if a special clause was necessary to fully honour the guarantees given to Fifa.
2010 here we come
by Lungile Madywabe (mg.co.za)
11 July 2006 02:00
It was inevitable. Long before the 2006 World Cup final, the Afro-pessimist brigade was already muttering dark warnings about 2010. Now comes the crescendo. We can almost feel the musty colonial breath in our faces, sputtering: “Crime! Disease! Civilisation! Give it to Australia!”
The most grotesque forms of this argument cannot be taken seriously. Fifa has already reiterated, unambiguously, that the world is coming to our shores in 2010. But it is worth talking about the challenges and what we need to accomplish as a nation over the next four years.
Estimates of Africa’s overall economic contribution to world football are tenuous, but there is general agreement that it hovers somewhere between the less-than-inspiring levels of zero and 1%. The continent’s biggest recognisable strength lies in its incredible human resources, calculated in terms of the number of players it exports to Europe.
As host of the 2010 World Cup, South Africa holds the cards and its economic influence in world football is bound to increase. The current monetary value of South African football is, according to informal calculations, approaching R600-million and it is believed that this figure will be well over R1-billion come 2010.
A drop in the ocean! But significantly this is among the reasons it was chosen to host 2010. The vote of confidence in our nation-in-becoming is a building block upon which our readiness and success should be measured.
In its latest annual report, South African Tourism records that the country hosted more than 7,3-million international visitors last year. There are more than 55 000 hotels, guesthouses and bed and breakfasts. SA Tourism spokesperson Tholoane Qhobela points out that a growing number of South Africans are investing in lodging establishments. This can only be good for economic growth and job creation.
So who says we can’t handle the fans pouring in from all corners of the globe?
Afro-pessimism looms large though in the minds of those who want to peddle stereotypes about the developing world -- this continent in particular -- as a boiling cauldron of HIV and crime. More-over, bleats RW Johnson, South Africa’s infrastructure is decaying and the traffic lights don’t work.
No one is pretending that massive social and economic challenges don’t exist. How could they not in the wake of slavery, colonialism and apartheid? But 2010 is an occasion for South Africa to explode a range of stereo-types about our continent -- and the myth that organising an event of World Cup magnitude is beyond our ability. It is also an opportunity to hasten economic development and boost African soccer.
While South Africa needs to approach the World Cup as a confident nation, we cannot afford to downplay the serious challenges ahead.
Although 2010 head Danny Jordaan notes that South Africa is well ahead in areas such as the finalising of host city and stadium contracts, others require serious attention, planning and investment. In many of these areas, such as stadium construction and public transport, we are surely lagging behind.
Government, business and civil society will need to pull together to make many of these things happen. Building stadiums, strengthening the communications network and improving the country’s general infrastructure is going to take serious work.
A host of foreign and South African companies will be queuing for 2010 projects. This presents enormous opportunities for new investment and job creation. Our local football industry employs about 10 000 people directly; the indirect figure is probably well over 100 000. The 2010 World Cup should act as a big multiplier.
Many of Africa’s critics talk about South Africa as if it is not part of this continent. They talk about our highways, hotels, shopping malls and other things they consider markers of our First World status (at least on the urban/suburban fringe). But South Africa is not Germany, they protest. Not even South Korea or Australia. How can South Africa ever hope to match the public transport systems of Berlin?
Short answer: it can’t and it won’t.
We need to relax about one thing. South Africa’s World Cup will have all the imperfections that go along with being a developing nation.
Finally, in the same way writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o exhorts the developing world not to shy away from borrowing English words to enrich our languages, persuasively arguing that the queen’s language owes a debt to many African and other languages, the continent should unashamedly use the 2010 opportunity to develop its administration of the game so that Africa can begin the process of levelling with Europe on the playing field.
South African FIFA soccer coins launched in Berlin
(record.co.za)
A new South African gold and silver commemorative coin featuring the official logo for the 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa was unveiled on July 7.
The coin was introduced at the Tempodrom in Berlin by the South African Mint Company together with the Federation of International Football Association (Fifa) and the South African Local Organising Committee.
Special coin sets were handed to the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, Fifa’s president Sepp Blatter and Danny Jordaan, CEO of the local South African organising committee.
These coins are the first in a four-year worldwide coin programme leading up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
Each year the legal tender commemorative coins in gold and silver, will feature aspects from each of the provinces in South Africa that will hold a World Cup match.
On Sunday, July 23 the official 2010 Coin Series will be launched at the annual open day at the Mint and free soccer tokens will be available at the Mint’s shop.
Govt departments in disarray over 2010
(sabcnews.com)
July 11, 2006, 14:30
Members of Parliament have raised concerns about a lack of co-ordination among government departments with regard to preparations for the 2010 World Cup.
This follows a call by the department of trade and industry for a clause dealing with intellectual property to be removed from one of the bills aimed at facilitating the hosting of the tournament. The bills are the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Special Measures Bill and the Second 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Special Measures Bill.
McDonald Netshitenzhe, from DTI, says issues of intellectual property are national competencies and not a co-responsibility with provincial governments. Bagudi Tolo who is co-chairing the parliamentary hearings into the bills said this is problematic.
Africa seeks extra World Cup spot
(sundaytimes.co.za)
Tuesday July 11, 2006 15:56 - (SA)
BERLIN - Labelling it as "premature" in the glow of Germany's 2006 World Cup tour de force, Fifa officials here have remained mum over Africa's exact representation when the tournament is staged in South Africa in 2010.
African nations were awarded five positions in the 32-team field in Germany, with only Ghana qualifying for the last 16 and The Ivory Coast, Angola, Tunisia and Togo all eliminated in the first round.
It hardly seems a criterion for canvassing for greater representation in 2010, but with South Africa qualifying automatically as the host nation, the Confederation of African Football (Caf) are intent on securing five qualifying places as well - and increasing the continent's overall representation to six.
The only feasible manner, it would seem, to achieve this objective would be by decreasing the not inconsiderable European representation. But with Europe's domination in the recently completed tournament - all four semi-finalists, the eventual winners Italy, finalists France, Germany and Portugal were European-based - persuading Fifa to sanction an increase in Africa's representation will be far from easy.
Either way, there is every prospect of a dogfight materialising for the available places among the five African qualifiers in Germany, as well as Nigeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Senegal, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Morocco, the DRC, Guinea and others.
And South Africa's Organising Committee CEO, Danny Jordaan, is hoping to lessen the log-jam for a tournament billed as "Win with Africa in Africa" through securing an all-important sixth position for the continent.
