Tag: south africa

A Seedy Business

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The seedings for the 2010 World Cup Draw are announced today. They are based on the FIFA world ranking of the teams in question, together with the performance of the nations in the last three World Cup Tournaments. However, the actual formula used is a top secret blend of 13 herbs and spices which means that FIFA can tweak it quietly behind the scenes to allow their favoured countries a smoother ride through the competition, just like they did with the European play-offs.
With South Africa almost certainly guaranteed a seeded position, there are seven other places up for grabs in the first pool. Timeslive.co.za has them down as follows:

First pool: South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, France

France won the 1998 World Cup, but crashed out with scoring a goal 4 years later, recovering to be beaten finalists last time around. This could mean that they sneak into the first pool, despite only sneaking into the competition via Thierry “Cheating Bastard” Henry’s much-documented handball in their playoff against Ireland.
This would not be a good thing for England’s World Cup hopes unless (possibly) they were drawn against South Africa. The remainder of the pools might look like this:

Second pool: England, Portugal, Slovakia, Switzerland, Greece, Denmark, Serbia, Slovenia
Third pool: Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay
Fourth pool: Honduras, Mexico, United States, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand

Or they might not. So much of speculation.

So, having reviewed my successful ticket application (for 6 games in Cape Town), I can safely say that it looks like I will see just about anyone playing just about anyone else.

Except the Irish, obviously.

UPDATE: England seeded, France & Portugal not.

Pots for Friday’s draw: eight groups of four countries to be drawn, each group containing one country from each pot.

Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England

Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Mexico, Honduras

Pot 3 (Africa and South America): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay

Pot 4 (Europe): France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia

The FIFA World Cup draw – a warning

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Let the moaning begin. Eh?
But yes, because Cape Town is going to be hosting the World Cup 2010 draw on Friday 4th December and there’s going to be a party. And they’re going to shut a few roads to make sure that the partygoers don’t get flattened by… you know… cars and stuff.

There’s a full and comprehensive list of road closures, including times here and there are sure to be some people moaning about the traffic despite the fact that they’ve had adequate warning via the radio, newspapers and internet. And despite the fact that these roads are regularly closed when there are large conferences at the CTICC. And despite the fact that no-one in their right mind would try to drive up Long Street on a Friday afternoon or evening.
Some people are just like that.

The traffic is just the tip of the iceberg though. Some people are still in denial about the whole World Cup thing and they’re going to go out of their way (with the help of the sensationalist SA media and the Daily Mail) to publicise every little bit of negativity that they can possibly find in glaringly bright lights. And with an estimated 700 million viewers fixing their eyes on Cape Town next week, they’ve got their first little platform ready and waiting.

This should be a celebration – and it will be. The World Cup will bring jobs, people, infrastructure and money into South Africa. But possibly worth more than all those put together, it will bring publicity. And publicity can swing either way.
It’s like that, is publicity, flip-flopping between sides like Allan Boesak.
There is, of course, that age old saying that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”, but that’s complete bullshit. Try telling that to Gary Glitter or… well… Allan Boesak.
While this is a huge opportunity for South Africa, it is sadly also a huge opportunity for those that seek to derail the good things that are happening in this country and the hope that goes with them. I’m talking about the racists, the ex-pats, the union leaders and those who put their own selfish agendas in front of the good of the country. They too will be watching the draw next Friday, but for different reasons to you and I. They will be looking to pounce on anything that is not 110% perfect; be it the traffic, the TV production, the pre-draw entertainment or the weather.
Whatever they can find to dampen the celebration, they will use.

It’s sad that I feel this way, but I think that it is important that someone gets this message out there before the mis- and dis-information spreads its way out across the media. Simply put, you can fully expect the usual situation of the media over-reporting the negative aspects of life in South Africa to be concentrated while the World Cup is on. (And that includes the World Cup draw). Every incident of pickpocketing, poor organisation, drunken fist-fighting, overfilled buses or littering (ok, maybe not littering) will be documented and analysed in minute detail under evocative and exceptionalist headlines. Believe it, because it’s true.

Whatever happens, it is vitally important for South Africa that the optimism and the positive vibe that surrounds the World Cup is not drowned out by the small but vociferous minorities that want to drag this country down. So go and enjoy yourselves, have fun. And take photos and blog it, because that’s exactly what they’ll be doing for the other side.

As for me, I’m planning to leave my comfort zone of Southern Suburbia and take my Dad into town to join the chaos party on Long Street.
Can I, as they say, get a woop woop?!? (Oh, and England picked as team C1? Thanks.)

P.S. I just updated this with some amazing video. Go see.

Brazil again

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As the last of the 32 teams to qualify for next year’s World Cup in South Africa were decided this week (some more honourably than others), only now do our local newspapers reveal that we’re wasting time, money and effort on the whole competition. Because they already know who will be the winners:

Football’s romantics might wish for a long-awaited Spanish victory in the 2010 World Cup, or a historic African triumph, but it looks like it will be Brazil all the way.  
Brazil’s coach, Dunga, may have alienated some fans with pragmatism rather than Brazilian flamboyance, but the tournament should end with a sixth success for the World Cup’s most successful team.

And even who they will beat in the final:

the final appears likely to be between Brazil and European champions Spain.

Honestly – all this fuss over infrastructure, security, stadiums, money and Thierry Henry’s left hand could have been easily avoided if we had known this earlier. We could have just handed the trophy over to Brazil and got on with life as usual, complaining about the form of the national football team and ignoring the fact that the Springboks aren’t doing very well, because “they’re still World Champions”.

Which leads me to an interesting point. Could it possibly be that the SAPA-AFP journalist who wrote the Brazil piece just worked out who would win and come second by looking at the current FIFA world rankings? (And if so, would that not also predict the Netherlands beating Italy in a tight 3rd place play off match in PE village on July 10th?)
If the tournament is really going to be decided by world ranking alone, then why are we bothering?

It really is nothing piece of journalism. A space filler full of speculation and unsubstantiated reasoning, obviously written by someone who knows nothing about football. Sadly, it’s exactly the kind of rubbish we’ve come to expect from The Times. Could they really not find something better to put in there? My 3-year-old son could have done a better job.

Happily, Carlos Amato’s open letter to Thierry Henry spares their blushes somewhat.

In My Eyes

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As I sit in the lab, pitching various antibiotics into battle against my TB while hiding behind negative pressure, an N95 particulate mask and several layers of protective gear, there’s nothing I like more than some loud music on Snoopy Too, my iPod.

Today’s offering is Zebra & Giraffe: local favourites and official support act for The Killers SA tour next month.

This is the brilliant video for In My Eyes, frontman Greg Carlin goes driving around the city at night in a hastily-modified Mercedes-Benz while trying to shake the memory of his girlie. It’s worth watching right through to the end, believe me.
You didn’t see that one coming, now did you?

I think I’m almost looking forward to seeing Z&G as much as Brandon et al on December 6th.

Bring it.

More blogging for me

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Because my most important reader is me, I’m blogging this. It’s old news in SA now, but not all my readers are South African and I’m pretty sure it’s something that I will always enjoy coming back to, like Nhlanhla Nene falling off his chair, mid-interview.
I know a lot of people are going to click that link and relive that 23 second clip again. Quality impromptu slapstick comedy by the head of the Finance Portfolio Committee.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ras Dumisani and his rendition of the South African national anthem before the France v SA rugby match in Toulouse last Friday:

(* note inverted SA flag at 0:42. That’s because SA expats don’t know much about the SA flag.)

But tuneful, it ain’t. The jokes have been doing the rounds about the amount of weed Dumisani had smoked before he sang etc etc. But there’s a serious side to it all. Ex-bok Supersport rugby guru Naas Botha blamed the poor Bok performance (they lost 20-13) on the poor Dumisani performance.

“It was sad that we lost the game,” said Botha. “But after that absolute disaster of a national anthem, everything went wrong. It was shocking and definitely didn’t assist in creating a calm atmosphere for the team, as it should have. Someone has to be taken to task for this disaster. The government should assist in getting to the bottom of this.”

Yes. Bring the Government in. That will help. Jacob Zuma can hop into his time machine and go back to urge Ras Dumisani to practice a bit more. Or at all. Whatever.  Or maybe he could pop a wig on and take Dumisani’s place.
Jacob has got a bald head, but he’s got a lovely singing voice. We’ve all heard him doing Umshini Wami. It’s inspiring stuff.
And Botha is probably right about it being the sole cause of the Bok defeat, as well. I know that when I’ve been listening to Sicky Dion, I get all my line-out calls wrong, forget how to tackle and commit far too few players to the breakdown. So that’s probably what happened.

It was bad though. So bad, in fact, that Julius Malema hasn’t even blamed the fuss on racism.

Yet.