Emmanuel Mokobane stands on a shaky looking scaffold overlooking
the half-built bowl that will become the venue for the 2010 World Cup
final and breaks into a smile.
A concrete pourer, he has moved to Johannesburg from his Northern Province
home hundreds of miles away to join the 1,500 construction workers who
are labouring around the clock to get the Soccer City stadium ready in
time.
"I am very happy the World Cup is coming to South Africa," he
says, a broad grin on his face. "I just hope now I can get a ticket."
Mokobane is one of the "real Africans" whom World Cup organising
committee chief Danny Jordaan talks about when he speaks of his desire
to stage a sporting festival for the African people.
In contrast to more recent tournaments, there is a genuine desire among
organisers here to ensure there is a proper balance between the country's
poor and Fifa's need to satisfy corporate backers.
Last weekend Jordaan announced that tickets would start from R140 (?10).
In a country where the lowest-paid worker receives ?170 a month, that
is still quite a lot of money.
Jordaan reckons that 15-20 per cent of the three million available tickets
will be reserved for poorer South Africans. About 120,000 will be given
away.
The danger remains, however, that the temptation to sell those tickets
to rich European fans will be too strong to resist.
For all the talk of the legacy that London will be left by the 2012 Olympics,
no sporting event could hope to match the expectations and hope being
generated by the 2010 World Cup. Never before has a sporting event been
offered up as such a panacea for economic and social ills.
Inevitably, there is scepticism among South Africans that the World Cup
can deliver on all its promises. A short drive from Soccer City, the 95,000-seater
stadium being built next to one of Johannesburg's oldest gold mine dumps,
is Soweto, a township synonymous with the rainbow nation's long struggle
against apartheid.
A settlement of four million people stretching for 30 kilometres, it was
here that Nelson Mandela lived for many years.
It is also the nation's football heartland, home to the two biggest clubs,
Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.
In recent times this township has been transformed. Tourist companies
now run trips for visitors and in a country where 50 murders are committed
every day, crime rates are relatively low.
There is plenty of evidence, too, that even without the World Cup, the
effects of the country's economic boom are filtering down to the poorest
of people.
In September, Mandela opened the Maponya Mall, a ?43 million shopping
centre which would not look out of place in any American or British city.
But across the road from the fast-food outlets and designer-clothes stores,
the old Soweto is visible. Here Sowetans still live in shacks with no
electricity or running water. It is these people Jordaan must surely have
in mind when he talks of his people's Cup.
Not all are convinced, however, that the World Cup is the right thing
to be spending the public's money on. "Many people think lots of
money is going to be wasted in constructing all these stadiums,"
said Alfred Molete, a 20-year-old waiter. "They think it would be
better spent on improving the housing and more hospitals."
Another young Sowetan, Alice Masemola, said: "Already we are seeing
budgets decreasing for other government departments. People are more worried
about teenage pregnancies and poverty and crime. I am just hoping that
with all the international attention on us, things will improve."
Building five stadiums and renovating five more at a cost of ?750 million
would certainly appear a questionable legacy. And with at least two of
the new venues way behind schedule, the costs are almost certain to rise.
At Soccer City there are no such worries. They are confident the ?100
million redevelopment project will be finished by its April 2009 deadline.
But what happens to the stadium afterwards remains a worry. Orlando Pirates
have still not said whether they will take on the running costs after
2010.
Jordaan dismisses such fears and points to the legacy already being created
by the 14,100 construction jobs linked to the World Cup.
He said: "The apartheid economy excluded 90 per cent of the population
from participating in the daily life of the economy. There has to be a
special focus on the people who were excluded in the past."
David Miles, a site safety manager who trains the workers on the Soccer
City project, added: "The culture is starting to change here. People
are realising that they can't rely on the government. They have to get
out and do a job.
"What the World Cup is doing is helping us train people for the construction
boom going on right across South Africa."
But while the stadiums may well be finished in time, there are bigger
fears over transport and accommodation, many doubting that the infrastructure
can cope. And the fatal shooting of a former Austrian footballer near
Durban last Friday, on the eve of the World Cup draw, only added to concerns
over security.
Moeketsi Mosola, chief executive of South African Tourism, claims the
World Cup is helping to focus minds on tackling the issue, with another
50,000 police to be recruited between now and 2010. "The crime we
see is the legacy of apartheid," he said. "We are not going
to change this country overnight. But there is a fundamental commitment
from everyone to try and change."
In that sense at least, Jordaan is delivering on his promises.
Having advised the South African Premier League (PSL) on their record
1.6 billion rand (?110 million) TV deal in the summer, it is an embarrassment
to English Premier League chairman David Richards that the deal is now
at the centre of a major corruption scandal.
Although Richards did not receive any consultancy fee or commission, there
is a national uproar over the way five PSL officials tried to pay themselves
huge bonuses from the deal with pay TV broadcaster SuperSport.
The PSL was able to triple its previous deal with the South African Broadcasting
Corporation after Richards advised them on how to split up their rights
to maximise value. Manchester United lawyer Maurice Watkins also gave
them legal advice.
But there was a huge outcry when it emerged that five people - Dr Irvin
Khoza, chairman of the South Africa World Cup organising committee and
vice-president of the PSL, Trevor Phillips, a former commercial director
of the Football Association who quit as the PSL's chief executive in the
summer, Kaizer Chiefs team founder Kaizer Motaung, marketing specialist
Peter Mancer and Golden Arrows team owner Mato Madlala - stood to share
up to R300 million from the TV deal and other sponsorship deals.
All have now agreed to reduce their demands. But Richards, whose family
has long had business interests in South Africa and who has strong connections
to the football there, is willing to sever his links with the PSL if the
officials go ahead and pay themselves such generous bonuses.
The relationship between Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez and club owners
Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr may have soured again in recent weeks,
but at least the Americans are now close to sealing a ?500 million deal
to refinance the club's new home and their takeover.
It is understood the club have clinched a deal with US bank Wachovia and
existing backers Royal Bank of Scotland to help finance the move from
Anfield to a new 61,000-seater stadium at Stanley Park.
Hicks and Gillett will use the new loans to refinance, at better interest
rates, the ?280 million they borrowed when they bought the club for ?174
million in February.
Although the row between Benitez and the owners was over his transfer
plans for the January window, Liverpool sources said the difficulty in
negotiating the new financing was not linked to any restrictions on the
Spaniard's transfer budget.
,
29/11/2007
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