Ivins's Inbox 4-27

Do you think South Africa was a good choice for this year’s World Cup? Safety issues? Have they prepared enough?
-Austin (Orlando, FL)

For the first time in the 19-years of the FIFA World Cup will be played and hosted in an African country, and questions like the one above have been circulating.

Before questioning the location of the World Cup let’s look into the other choices that were presented.

Africa was chosen as the location for the tournament, because of FIFA’s policy wanting to rotate the tournament throughout the different confederations. (That policy was later dropped in 2007)

Egypt, Morocco and a Libya/Tunisia co-host combination, all proposed bids to FIFA officials for the World Cup tournament, but South Africa won the vote.

What FIFA had liked with South Africa over Morocco, who finished second, is that they had hosted large international sporting events before such as the 1995 Rugby World Cup and the 2003 Cricket World Cup. The thought would be that South Africa would be able to handle and prepare for the event.

On March 2, 2010, FIFA president Sepp Blatter remarked that at the 100-day mark before the World Cup, South Africa was an eight out of ten on the scale of being ready for the summer events.

However, Blatter did mention that by June 11th (the start of the games) that number should be a ten out-of ten.

Does this really mean that South Africa is ready? Yes and no.

South Africa hosted the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup last summer and that tournament went fine and as planned. Four stadiums hosted the 16 matches and will be used again for the World Cup.

The problem, which has sparked concern from fans, has been the completion of the stadiums for the World Cup. Initially two other stadiums were supposed to host matches for the Confederations Cup, but they had to withdraw their names after construction problems.

Delay’s in the construction process, have been related to  strikes by worker unions that control almost 70,000 workers who work on the stadiums. Still, Blatter and the World Cup committees don’t feel as if this will be a problem, assuring the stadiums will be complete.

So, will the 10 locations be ready in time? Yes. You have to feel if it was that big of a problem changes would have already been made.

Another problem that could arise is the security concerns surrounding the nation, but that has already been taken into consideration.

No fly zones in host cities, increased security, and relocation of deprived citizens are all signs that South Africa is ready for this summer.

Could something go wrong?

Unlikely, as I feel South Africa has prepared enough for a great month of football and something truly special.

-A. Ivins