A red card to the sceptics?

AuteurHomewood, Brian
Fonction Sports

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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.

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...

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