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South Africa's World Cup preparations overshadowed by fear of failure
Everyone insists South Africa will stage a great tournament, but on the pitch the hosts could make unwanted World Cup history
Construction workers put the final touches to the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. Photograph: Rajesh Jantilal/AFP/Getty Images
Most South Africans, including former players and officials, are terrified about the impending World Cup. Not because they have any fears over the 10 stadiums not being ready, share international concerns over crime, believe transport links are not up to scratch or will admit to fears over providing enough beds for the hundreds of thousands of expected visitors.
All are insistent that South Africa will host a great World Cup. But they are less confident about the performance of their team, fearing that they could turn out to be the sort of hosts who embarrass themselves just as the guests are arriving and are forced to slink away from their own party early.
Mark Fish, the former Lazio, Bolton and Charlton defender, who was a member of the South Africa side that lifted the African Nations Cup in 1996 just four years after they were readmitted to world football, is clear where the blame lies.
"A lot of the blame goes towards the federation. There are a lot of people wanting power for themselves and that's why our game has stagnated," he said. "The Premier League players get paid a lot better than in my time, but we still seem to have the same problems going into big tournaments – finances, things aren't sorted out. The development of the game hasn't improved and that's why we are where we are."
Over lunch in Durban – where the new Moses Mabhida Stadium with its distinctive design is perhaps even more impressive than the Green Point stadium in Cape Town that we saw yesterday – Fish is fearful that the green-and-gold clad Bafana Bafana team could make World Cup history by crashing out in the first round.
Tomorrow morning in Johannesburg, the South African press will be reintroduced to the Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira, their former coach who stepped down 17 months ago to take care of his sick wife. He has agreed to step into the breach after South Africa lost eight of their past nine matches under his successor Joel Santana and slid to 85th in the world rankings. Crueller critics suggest they may have been better off with Carlos Santana.
Fish, now coaching Thanda Royal Zulu in South Africa's second tier, believes that the decline in South African football can be traced back to its highest point – that African Cup of Nations victory over Tunisia that marked their return from the football wilderness and was captured in a famous photo that showed the multi-racial team celebrating alongside both Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk.
"If you go back in the history of South African football, we won the African Nations Cup too soon. We won it too soon and lived on that for too long," he said.
Resting on their laurels, the chaotic South African Football Association which, judging by descriptions from former players and the press makes the English FA look like a slick, well-oiled decision- making machine in comparison, failed to invest in developing new talent and so was unable to capitalise on the team in which Fish starred alongside Phil Masinga and Lucas Radebe.
"It sort of stagnated. We didn't have enough players coming through, there was not enough momentum around South Africa to find that talent and nurture that talent. We are playing catch up."
Not that Parreira has exactly been greeted as a returning hero. Newspaper columnists here are already muttering about the fact he was sacked by Fluminense in July after only four months and point to a disappointing showing in the last African Nations Cup. He will have to hit the ground running if the din of vuvuzela horns is not to be drowned out by the sound of knives being sharpened.
Aside from recalling Benni McCarthy despite his frequent run-ins with the hierarchy, Fish knows what he would do to change South Africa's culture of underachievement: "I would get Bafana Bafana to spend one week with the Springbok team, get them in the changing room with Peter de Villiers and let them know what winning is all about."
But if the host team do make unwelcome history by becoming the first to crash out in the first round, they will at least do so in some fine stadiums.
The Moses Mabhida Stadium is, like Wembley, spanned by an iconic arch. Unlike Wembley, the stadium has been finished on time and you will soon be able to travel to the top of that arch on a so-called "sky car" to sample panoramic views.
Like most other big cities in South Africa, Durban is undergoing an intense makeover ahead of the tournament kicking off in June. The new stadium, which in common with the vogue for flexible design will be scaled back from 70,000 seats to 56,000 after its seven World Cup matches, also offers punters the opportunity to bungee-jump off the arch from 80 metres up.
The gleaming arena with its colourful seats stands in stark contrast to its slightly tattier neighbour, the 60,000-capacity rugby stadium where the British and Irish Lions played last summer. The visual effect is odd – as though the Stadium of Light was built right next door to Roker Park. Local organisers say the original plan was to rebuild it but claim the prohibitive costs, combined with Fifa's demands and a creaking 60-year old design, made it more sensible to build a new one next door at a cost of 2.6bn rand (£217m).
As yet, the Natal Sharks have declined to make the short hop from the atmospheric Kings Park with its gravity-defying stands to the airier, shinier but undeniably more corporate new one despite, our host says pointedly, specifically requesting bigger baths for their players.
A resolution to the row will be vital if the new stadium is to be sustainable in the long term as part of ambitious plans to make Durban South Africa's sporting capital. It will also host Twenty20 cricket, both of Durban's professional football teams and athletics on a track that is due to be installed after the World Cup. Transport is being upgraded, public parks landscaped and tunnels put in that will allow visitors direct access from the beach.
That addition of an athletics track, plus the fact that the stadium design allows the capacity to be boosted back up to 85,000 if required, points the way to the city's bold longer-term ambitions – an athletics World Championships and, potentially, a bid to become the first African city to host an Olympic Games in 2024.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/b...world-cup-2010
Everyone insists South Africa will stage a great tournament, but on the pitch the hosts could make unwanted World Cup history
Construction workers put the final touches to the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. Photograph: Rajesh Jantilal/AFP/Getty ImagesMost South Africans, including former players and officials, are terrified about the impending World Cup. Not because they have any fears over the 10 stadiums not being ready, share international concerns over crime, believe transport links are not up to scratch or will admit to fears over providing enough beds for the hundreds of thousands of expected visitors.
All are insistent that South Africa will host a great World Cup. But they are less confident about the performance of their team, fearing that they could turn out to be the sort of hosts who embarrass themselves just as the guests are arriving and are forced to slink away from their own party early.
Mark Fish, the former Lazio, Bolton and Charlton defender, who was a member of the South Africa side that lifted the African Nations Cup in 1996 just four years after they were readmitted to world football, is clear where the blame lies.
"A lot of the blame goes towards the federation. There are a lot of people wanting power for themselves and that's why our game has stagnated," he said. "The Premier League players get paid a lot better than in my time, but we still seem to have the same problems going into big tournaments – finances, things aren't sorted out. The development of the game hasn't improved and that's why we are where we are."
Over lunch in Durban – where the new Moses Mabhida Stadium with its distinctive design is perhaps even more impressive than the Green Point stadium in Cape Town that we saw yesterday – Fish is fearful that the green-and-gold clad Bafana Bafana team could make World Cup history by crashing out in the first round.
Tomorrow morning in Johannesburg, the South African press will be reintroduced to the Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira, their former coach who stepped down 17 months ago to take care of his sick wife. He has agreed to step into the breach after South Africa lost eight of their past nine matches under his successor Joel Santana and slid to 85th in the world rankings. Crueller critics suggest they may have been better off with Carlos Santana.
Fish, now coaching Thanda Royal Zulu in South Africa's second tier, believes that the decline in South African football can be traced back to its highest point – that African Cup of Nations victory over Tunisia that marked their return from the football wilderness and was captured in a famous photo that showed the multi-racial team celebrating alongside both Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk.
"If you go back in the history of South African football, we won the African Nations Cup too soon. We won it too soon and lived on that for too long," he said.
Resting on their laurels, the chaotic South African Football Association which, judging by descriptions from former players and the press makes the English FA look like a slick, well-oiled decision- making machine in comparison, failed to invest in developing new talent and so was unable to capitalise on the team in which Fish starred alongside Phil Masinga and Lucas Radebe.
"It sort of stagnated. We didn't have enough players coming through, there was not enough momentum around South Africa to find that talent and nurture that talent. We are playing catch up."
Not that Parreira has exactly been greeted as a returning hero. Newspaper columnists here are already muttering about the fact he was sacked by Fluminense in July after only four months and point to a disappointing showing in the last African Nations Cup. He will have to hit the ground running if the din of vuvuzela horns is not to be drowned out by the sound of knives being sharpened.
Aside from recalling Benni McCarthy despite his frequent run-ins with the hierarchy, Fish knows what he would do to change South Africa's culture of underachievement: "I would get Bafana Bafana to spend one week with the Springbok team, get them in the changing room with Peter de Villiers and let them know what winning is all about."
But if the host team do make unwelcome history by becoming the first to crash out in the first round, they will at least do so in some fine stadiums.
The Moses Mabhida Stadium is, like Wembley, spanned by an iconic arch. Unlike Wembley, the stadium has been finished on time and you will soon be able to travel to the top of that arch on a so-called "sky car" to sample panoramic views.
Like most other big cities in South Africa, Durban is undergoing an intense makeover ahead of the tournament kicking off in June. The new stadium, which in common with the vogue for flexible design will be scaled back from 70,000 seats to 56,000 after its seven World Cup matches, also offers punters the opportunity to bungee-jump off the arch from 80 metres up.
The gleaming arena with its colourful seats stands in stark contrast to its slightly tattier neighbour, the 60,000-capacity rugby stadium where the British and Irish Lions played last summer. The visual effect is odd – as though the Stadium of Light was built right next door to Roker Park. Local organisers say the original plan was to rebuild it but claim the prohibitive costs, combined with Fifa's demands and a creaking 60-year old design, made it more sensible to build a new one next door at a cost of 2.6bn rand (£217m).
As yet, the Natal Sharks have declined to make the short hop from the atmospheric Kings Park with its gravity-defying stands to the airier, shinier but undeniably more corporate new one despite, our host says pointedly, specifically requesting bigger baths for their players.
A resolution to the row will be vital if the new stadium is to be sustainable in the long term as part of ambitious plans to make Durban South Africa's sporting capital. It will also host Twenty20 cricket, both of Durban's professional football teams and athletics on a track that is due to be installed after the World Cup. Transport is being upgraded, public parks landscaped and tunnels put in that will allow visitors direct access from the beach.
That addition of an athletics track, plus the fact that the stadium design allows the capacity to be boosted back up to 85,000 if required, points the way to the city's bold longer-term ambitions – an athletics World Championships and, potentially, a bid to become the first African city to host an Olympic Games in 2024.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/b...world-cup-2010
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