A couple pics from the World Cup exhibition game we went to while in South Africa. We all wore Bafana Bafana tshirts (SA’s national team) since they were playing Columbia, and all 90,000 people in the stadium pretty much did the same. I guess Columbia fans are few and far between in SA. Now despite the hype and excitement, the game was pretty terrible. They are both low ranking teams and the only goals scored were from penalty shots. The players (esp. Columbia) were taking falls every chance they got. But all in all it was an amazing experience. Soccer City is HUGE, and amazing to look at when there’s a match on and the sun is down.

There’s just a few issues I have with the World Cup in South Africa that I feel like people should know about. Especially since so many will be watching it on TV but wont see the other social dimensions that are effecting people behind the scenes.

1. The local people are so emotionally invested in this event, that when anything goes wrong, it’s like a collective sense of disappointment. So much is riding on it going well; Jobs, tourism, the way the rest of the world views their country.
   
   
2. The fact is, the government spent millions on building new stadiums that will probably never be used after the World Cup is over. In some areas, schools and housing developments were demolished in order to build them, and people were left homeless and without access to education. In a country where there are serious economic divides, I don’t need to tell you that that is a serious problem.
   
   
3. South Africa’s unemployment rate is estimated to be 40%, while many jobs were created during the building phase of the stadiums, they were mostly temporary and did not help in the long term. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if the WC organizers weren’t pitching the even to the people as a solution to the underdevelopment problems of the country, because it clearly isn’t true.
   
   
4. Half the estimated attendees are actually coming to South Africa for the World Cup. Tickets, flights, accommodation and transportation have become so exorbitantly priced that it has made it impossible for most to afford the trip. Not only that, most locals can’t afford to buy game tickets.
   
   
5. FIFA is capitalizing on EVERYTHING, the TV rights, ticket sales, refreshments, Merch. (unless it’s a knockoff, but most of them are made in China, not SA)  Very little revenue from the event is actually staying in South Africa.

I know these points may seem typical or marginal for a large scale sporting event, but its the location that makes them so important. I’ve gone through townships outside of Johannesburg where people live in shacks made of corrugated iron, share horribly up kept outdoor toilets, have limited access to running water or electricity and in the distance is a soccer stadium built for the World Cup. This is not the South Africa the tourists and the international viewers will see, they will be shown the recently redone streets and freeways with soccer ball statues and landscaped medians. All of this, payed for by money that could have been used for housing and service provision.

I don’t think World Cup is all bad. It’s important to take into account the nation building and solidarity aspect of the event, especially in a country that has so many divides left over from the apartheid era. The problem is the new divides are those of class, made worse by huge wealth disparities that I fear the World Cup will exacerbate.

I think calling for a boycott or chastising people for watching is pointless and ridiculous. I’ll probably even watch a few games on TV to be honest. The most important thing for me is that people understand what’s going on behind the scenes and think about the broader implications of the event. Information is liberation! (or something…)