A red card to the sceptics?
With the World Cup less than two weeks away, all eyes will be on South Africa and the 32 national football teams competing for the iconic gold trophy of world champions. As expected, FIFA president Sepp Blatter is in rare form, promising a spectacular showcase – as an African nation hosts the competition for the first time in its history.
By Brian Homewood
When FIFA president Sepp Blatter joined football’s governing body as a development officer back in 1975, African football was barely on the map. The continent was allocated a meagre, single place at the World Cup finals and the continent’s most famous player up to that point, Eusebio, had represented Portugal at the 1966 World Cup.
In fact, the continent had become something of a laughing stock: at the 1974 World Cup, Zaire (now The Democratic Republic of Congo) lost all three of their games in the group stage, including a 9-0 mauling at the hand of Yugoslavia. Their performance descended to the point of farce during their final match against Brazil when – with the South Americans preparing to take a free kick outside the area – a Zairian player charged from the defensive wall and hoofed the ball up the field.
But all that began to change, after Blatter visited Ethiopia in the mid-1970s to kick off a FIFA development programme, aimed at spreading football expertise around the world. Captivated by their enthusiasm for the sport, Blatter – FIFA president since 1998 – became an instant admirer of African football.
Since then, African football has come on in leaps and bounds, with much encouragement from FIFA. The continent is now guaranteed five places at the World Cup and their players – described by Blatter as “dancers and flying acrobats”, thanks to their natural talent – grace some of Europe’s top clubs.
A victory for Africa
From June 11, until the final on July 11 – 34 years on from Blatter’s little-publicised visit – South Africa will become the first country on the continent to stage one of the world’s most prestigious sporting events.
“It will be a historic moment,” said Blatter recently. “For me, it will not only be a fulfilment of a dream, but of an initiative I had back in 1976. It was then I went to Addis Ababa [Ethiopia’s capital city] and saw what football means to Africa.”
It has not been easy to get the competition to Africa; in fact, FIFA had to move the goalposts (so to speak), after Germany beat South Africa in the race to host the 2006 World Cup. FIFA responded to this by implementing a rotation policy that allowed only African countries to bid for the 2010 tournament. With the Europeans, Americans and Asians out of the way, South Africa beat Morocco and Egypt in a 2004 vote by FIFA’s Executive Committee. But even with the location assured, the doubts have continued.
Strikers dominate the field
Strikes by construction workers led to fears that the five new stadiums and a few refurbished ones would not be ready in time. There was controversy over forced evictions to “beautify” cities, with slum dwellers in Durban and Cape Town claiming they were kicked out of their homes and sent to even worse housing, out of the view of World Cup visitors.
The country still lacks the accommodation and transport infrastructure needed for such a huge event. Hopes of building up the tourist industry and encouraging visitors to return have been partly thwarted by reports of price gouging by hoteliers and airlines.
But the biggest headache is security: South Africa is one of the world’s most dangerous countries, with alarming rates of rape and around 50 murders a day.
FIFA and local organisers have responded by putting a huge security operation in place in cooperation with Interpol (the largest international police organisation). They insist – amid much scepticism – that it will be safe for visitors.
Blatter is adamant that all this effort is worth it. “It’s taken a long time, but ultimately it means justice for Africa, and for everything Africa has done for football in the past,” he said at a press conference in Zurich.
“This FIFA World Cup will be a success. However, no one can guarantee that everything will be perfect. We also want the World Cup to leave a lasting legacy in Africa. Our priority is the fight against poverty, illiteracy and healthcare problems, which we’re tackling with our ‘Football for Hope’ initiative.”
The more cynical view is that Blatter wants African votes when he comes up for re-election next year. Each of FIFA’s member associations has one vote for president – meaning that Brazil carries the same weight as Fiji – and Africa, with its 53 members, holds considerable sway.
Blatter, whose organisation boasts 208 member nations – 16 more than the United Nations and three more than the International Olympic Committee – would not go so far as to say that the success of his presidency depends on the tournament.
“I’m happy and a little bit … I wouldn’t say nervous … but like an actor when he has to enter the scene. It gives you this kind of adrenaline to go for the big performance; although it’s not my performance, it’s the performance of the FIFA team and … the whole African continent.”
The Sepp Blatter factor
A sprightly 74 and FIFA general secretary between 1981 and 1998; having overseen the organisation of four World Cups, Blatter is not everybody’s cup of tea.
Distinguished British football writer Brian Glanville regularly quotes a German colleague who told him “Sepp Blatter has 50 new ideas before breakfast – and 51 of them are bad”.
One of Blatter’s most infamous moments was in 2004, when he suggested that there would be more enthusiasm for women’s football if the players wore “tighter shorts and low cut shirts … to create a more female aesthetic”.
This year, he again upset female fans when commenting on England’s decision to strip John Terry of the captaincy after an alleged affair with the former girlfriend of a teammate:
“Listen, this is a special approach in the Anglo-Saxon countries. If this had happened in, let’s say, Latin countries, then I think he [Terry] would have been applauded.”
His recent claims in a Swiss newspaper (also plastered on a billboard in Cape Town) that Zurich – FIFA’s home city – is “boring, boring, boring” hardly went down with local authorities.
Blatter and FIFA have upset players and coaches alike, by refusing to implement any kind of technology to help referees make difficult decisions – particularly in cases where it is not clear to the naked eye if the ball has crossed the goal line.
Blatter’s argument is that the game must retain its human element – even if that means that teams sometimes lose important matches on the basis of wrong decisions. “We have to maintain these laws, so that football remains a sport which is easy to understand and has a human face,” argued Blatter.
Trying telling that to Ireland, who were denied a place at the World Cup by France in a playoff. The French scored their decisive goal late in the tie with the help of a blatant handball, seen around the world … but missed by the referee. Blatter further infuriated the Irish by later revealing their private request to be the 33rd team present in South Africa.
Hopp Schwiiz!
This year’s tournament in South Africa will be the 18th World Cup: the eighth in which Switzerland have competed, and their second in a row. It is an impressive performance for a small country where football has to compete with ice hockey and downhill skiing for attention.
Immigration has certainly helped and Switzerland’s well-organised youth development schemes have made the most of the foreign-born talent available – in stark contrast to neighbouring Austria, for example, who have only qualified for two World Cups since 1986.
Switzerland’s team includes players born in Cape Verde, Kosovo, The Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia (all have Swiss passports after moving to the country as children), as well as a number of players born to immigrant parents in the country.
Although many feel Switzerland will be happy just to be in South Africa, don’t try telling that to coach Ottmar Hitzfeld. The former maths teacher is one of Europe’s most successful coaches, having won the Bundesliga seven times with Borusssia Dortmund and Bayern Munich and the Champions League once with each – making him one of only two coaches to have won Europe’s top club competition with different clubs.
“The expectations in Switzerland for the 2010 FIFA World Cup are very, very high,” Hitzfeld said recently. “Having taken part three times in a row, in final tournaments, the Swiss national team has spoiled the supporters a little. They forget that Switzerland is still a small country in football terms and must make a big effort to stay at a high level.”
He later added, “There is so much pressure on a coach. I am still hungry, I still hate defeats, I still long for wins, there is no substitute for victories.”
However, Hitzfeld will do well just to equal Switzerland’s best previous performance, which was a quarterfinal finish in 1954.
Game on
Switzerland’s first-round group has a distinctly Latin feel, with Spain, Chile and Honduras the opponents.
Spain – 2008 European champions and widely regarded as the world’s best team – are almost certain to go through to the last 16, leaving the other three to fight for the other place.
Chile are not generally regarded as one of South America’s stronger teams and have not qualified since 1998. Nevertheless, they performed impressively to qualify for South Africa, finishing second behind Brazil and beating Argentina 1-0 on the way. Marcelo Bielsa, regarded as one of the world’s most enigmatic coaches, has got them playing a stylish passing game that makes them the most entertaining team on the continent.
Honduras are also not to be underestimated. They have players with English Premier League experience; plus the irrepressible 36-year-old striker Carlos Pavon, whose career has taken to him to Italy, Spain, the United States and Colombia, as well as four clubs in Mexico.
One of Switzerland’s biggest problems is that their most promising players seem to lose their way after being sold to foreign clubs. Philipp Degen has played only a handful of games since joining Liverpool two seasons ago, and Reto Ziegler has also seen his career go astray after being shunted from one foreign club to another.
Even Switzerland’s best-known defender, Philippe Senderos, is struggling at the moment. Having fallen out of favour with Arsenal, he joined Everton on loan in January, only to be beset by niggling injuries that kept him out the first team.
“Thanks to his talent he is still able to play international games for Switzerland. We don’t have a choice like Germany or England,” said Hitzfeld. “But, of course, I’d love very much to see him play every game for Everton. Nothing is more important than playing in competitions.”
Hitzfeld said that he has every confidence in FIFA and the arrangements for 2010. And, as far as his team is concerned, he probably has nothing to worry about. At the World Cup, the teams live in a bubble, moving only from the airport to their hotel to the training pitch to the stadium. As long as the facilities are good, which everything suggests they are, then, from their point of view, there is little to worry about.
Final whistle
But there is more to the World Cup organisation than keeping the teams happy. Most people agree that Germany, with the help of the fan fests, turned the 2006 event into one huge party and changed the image of the country, bringing long-term benefits.
If South Africa can keep the visitors safe, fill the stadiums, provide a good atmosphere and a legacy of improved infrastructure and security, then FIFA’s gamble will have paid off.
However, if it fails, we could witness visitors falling victim to crime, white elephant stadiums and social unrest among those who have been excluded from the festivities. If that were to happen, the chances of another African nation – or even countries such as Russia – hosting the tournament in the foreseeable future would take a sharp dive.
