A Year on from WC2010, Has the Rainbow Nation Lost It’s Pot of Gold?

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: June 8, 2011

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We’re nearly a year on from the World Cup in South Africa. Africa’s finest. Africa’s first. On Saturday it will be the first anniversary of Spain’s first ever global conquest at Soccer City over the Dutch cloggers.

Widely recognized as a success on footballing fronts, the only question left to be asked is this: Just how much did it benefit South Africans financially?

This week we have heard Johannesburg’s metro council claiming they made R7 from every rand spent on the World Cup, then the luxury hotels built for the tournament complained they were lying empty.

The FNB Stadium, formerly known as the 90,000-capacity Soccer City, claim they are going from strength to strength, while those other white elephant stadia in Port Elizabeth, Nelspruit and Polokwane lie largely idle.

A man who runs bike tours in Soweto says he’s been fully booked ever since launching his concept during WC2010 but I’ve just heard a mother claim her talented young lad can’t find a junior football club to play for in the Pretoria area.

For every South Africa claiming it was the best thing to happen to the Rainbow Nation, we hear another on the radio phone-ins claiming the nation has been ripped off. Who’s right? Can we ever be sure?

The single dominant fact, as far as one can glean from the limited information available, is that FIFA made a record $4.3 billion from the event, though as we shall see, that figure varies and may just be for public consumption.

Let’s switch to pounds sterling for a simple profit-loss analysis. And it makes uncomfortable reading. According to London’s Daily Telegraph, South Africa recouped just £323m on the £3bn it spent on the event. FIFA may be laughing. South Africans should be sobbing. Bitterly.

While the World Cup unquestionably helped to boost the image of South Africa and the so-called Dark...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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