South Africa Free Essay Example

South Africa is hosting the Soccer World Cup in the year 2010. In order to make it a big success, the federal government is embracing extensive procedures to supply sophisticated centers and refurbish 10 arenas in 9 provinces throughout the nation. The Soccer World Cup began in the year 1930, however no African country had actually ever played host to this event. Thus the 2010 soccer World Cup would be the very first global soccer occasion to be hosted by an African nation (South Africa Thinks Big for World Soccer Cup 2010 2005).

Additionally, the worried authorities are preparing another five soccer fields to help with practice for the gamers in this occasion. In addition, there will get along matches in between the teams of the various nations that are participating in this event. The 2002 World Soccer Cup was collectively hosted by South Korea and Japan. They had actually prepared, nearly thirty arenas as venues for that event, however, not even twenty stadiums were used for this occasion (South Africa Thinks Big for World Soccer Cup 2010 2005).

The building and construction cost of these stadiums is to be shared by the nationwide federal government and the governments of the provinces where the event is to be held, along with by the administrations of the cities, which are to host the event. The FIFA will also contribute to this global occasion. The government of South Africa is going to carry out a conference with the authorities of the Southern Africa Advancement Community Supreme Council on Sport in Cape Town to prepare a method to perform the international occasion and to go over the significance of the occasion for the area (South Africa Thinks Big for World Soccer Cup 2010 2005).

South Africa is currently ahead of its schedule for hosting this event. It has sufficient time and it has currently revealed the names of 9 cities that are to host the World Cup. The CEO of South Africa’s 2010 arranging committee, Danny Jordan declared that the FIFA had currently settled seventy five percent of the agreements to the competition which sufficient funds would be generated out of them. According to him, the European broadcasting agreements were currently signed by FIFA, which would protect United States $1. 2 billion. This quantity is more than what had actually been secured in 2002 World Cup (South Africa moves into 2010 gear 2006).

Expectations are that there would be more funding than that of the 2006 Germany Soccer World Cup. Danny Jordan added that they hope to generate additional revenues by providing all the details of the tournaments on mobile phones. Jordan declared that this World Cup would be organized as a world class event and that the revenues so far realized would be the greatest amongst all the World Cup events that had been conducted till date (South Africa shifts into 2010 gear 2006). The cities, which are to host this international event, are Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Nelspruit, Polokwane and Rustenburg.

The FIFA had already approved ten stadiums for the event. Officials say that these stadiums would be ready by the year 2009, as an African Confederation Cup is to be conducted there in that year (South Africa shifts into 2010 gear 2006). South Africa has had sufficient experience in hosting international events. Moreover, it has a lot of experience in the planning and hosting of international sporting events. In the year 1995, it had hosted the Rugby World Cup, which was a huge success. In the subsequent year South Africa emerged the winner in the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament, which it had hosted.

During, these major events, South Africa conducted these events without any dispute or conflict. The visitors to those events had acknowledged the extraordinary efforts made by South Africa (Football Fever Runs High n. d. ). In 1997 it hosted the World Cup of Athletics without the occurrence of any untoward incidents. A large number of foreign visitors attended that tournament. In the year 2003, it hosted the Cricket Word Cup. Although it lost in that event, cricket fans who had arrived there from different countries around the world, acclaimed the efficient manner in which the event had been conducted.

They were also attracted by the beauty of the country’s numerous tourist havens (Football Fever Runs High n. d. ). South Africa is confident that it would host the 2010 FIFA World Cup in a grand manner and make it one of the major events of the century. It had set aside an amount of fifteen billion rand for this purpose. According to the finance minister, Trevor Manuel, 8. 4 billion rand would be spent on constructing new venues and technologically upgrading the present venues. The remaining amount would be spent on upgrading the infrastructure (Football Fever Runs High n. d. ).

Plans are afoot to completely overhaul the public transport system. All the major hotels have already been booked by visitors to the 2010 World Cup. The government is making arrangements to provide alternate accommodation facilities to the visitors. The government is planning to sell the tickets in the year 2008 and a great demand is anticipated for them. Three million tickets are to be made available for the sixty – four matches (Football Fever Runs High n. d. ). According to the President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, South Africa has the competence to conduct the premier international event in 2010.

He also said that South Africa would prove its ability in this regard and it would be a grand platform for it to display its natural beauty to the world. It can also demonstrate its hospitality, display its diversified cultural heritage to the world and flaunt its expertise in holding such an extraordinary event without any hindrance (South Africa shifts into 2010 gear 2006). According to the custom established by FIFA, nearly one third of the three million tickets are to be made available to the residents of South Africa and one million tickets will be reserved for sponsors, teams and organizers.

The remaining two million tickets are to be sold to foreign spectators. Irrespective of which country emerges the winner in this tournament, the ultimate victor will be South African football (Football Fever Runs High n. d. ). The authorities responsible for conducting the 2010 Soccer World Cup have identified around twenty – two thousand rooms in hotels and around six thousand rooms in other places. This exercise was performed, in order to accommodate the large influx of visitors expected from all over the globe, for this momentous event.

These particulars were divulged by the minister for Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, during the inauguration of the FIFA Tour Operator Program in Sandton. Officials of the FIFA, like its President Sepp Blatter, were sanguine that South Africa would prove its undoubted mettle in making this event a grand success (Boost for 2010 accommodation 2007). It goes without saying that an event of this magnitude, involves a gigantic number of vehicles for transporting, the spectators, the players, officials and others to the various stadia.

In anticipation of this huge requirement, Mathabatha Makonyama, the deputy director general of integrated planning and intersphere coordination, divulged that approximately six thousand minibus taxis, two thousand four hundred buses and sixty trains would have to be pressed into service. The expectation was that all the South African cars for hire would have to be deployed. Moreover, the vehicles belonging to the tourism industry would also be completely engaged. This mammoth event was expected to occur between the months of June and July in the year 2010 (2010 Soccer World Cup transport problems 2006).

A very large number of spectators are expected to attend these festivities. Approximately, a fifty thousand strong crowd of spectators would grace each match on an average. In all, it was assumed that three million tickets would be sold. The number of international soccer lovers to attend the matches was estimated at three hundred thousand. In addition, another two hundred thousand ticketless spectators were expected to arrive in South Africa (2010 Soccer World Cup transport problems 2006). Some measures suggested to reduce this gargantuan traffic are to persuade the FIFA to commence the tournament at the time of the holidays in late June.

Such a measure would not only reduce the number of vehicles on the roads, but it would also have the added advantage of permitting the use of university residences by visitors. The maximum amount of vehicles are expected to ply on the roads on the fifteenth day of this event. On that particular day, it was anticipated that some more vehicles would have to be deployed. The breakup of these additional vehicles was given as twenty – six trains, each of which could transport eight hundred passengers; and four hundred and sixty coaches that could transport fifty persons each (2010 Soccer World Cup transport problems 2006).

The 2010 Soccer World Cup is expected to prove its success, right from day one. Additional, revenues will be generated from the sale of electronic media rights. FIFA’s approval indicates that South Africa has adequate infrastructure and organizing capacity. However, skeptics predict that the event will not run smoothly (South Africa’s 2010 Cup challenge 2006). In this manner it becomes obvious, that there are a lot of logistic and other complexities involved in conducting an event of this magnitude.

Despite, the clamoring of the pessimists and nit pickers, the fact remains that South Africans have generally been very successful in whatever they do. In the field of cricket, they had been boycotted by the rest of the cricketing nations for practicing apartheid. Nevertheless, once this ban was no longer effective, they have displayed their mettle in the gentleman’s game to the rest of the World. The manner in which they conducted a major cricket tournament, won them accolades from the cricketing world.

Therefore, it would be no exaggeration, to state that the 2010 Soccer World Cup would prove to be a truly remarkable event in the history of sports. The innovativeness, planning, indomitable courage and commitment of the redoubtable South Africans will ensure such an outcome. Notes 2010 Soccer World Cup transport problems . January 2006. http://forum. southafrica-direct. com/2010-soccer-world-cup-transport-problems-t150-1. html (accessed December 24, 2007). Boost for 2010 accommodation. November 27, 2007. http://www. news24. com/News24/Sport/Soccer/0,,2-9-840_2228227,00. html (accessed December 24, 2007). Football Fever Runs High.

http://www1. southafrica. net/Cultures/en-GB/consumer. southafrica. net/Why+South+Africa/Media+Gallery/Football+Fever+Runs+High. ht (accessed December 24, 2007). South Africa shifts into 2010 gear. July 10, 2006. http://www. southafrica. info/2010/2010-countdown. htm (accessed December 24, 2007). South Africa Thinks Big for World Soccer Cup 2010. August 17, 2005. South Africa Thinks Big for Worhttp://www. worldcup2010southafrica. com/content/view/240/109/ (accessed December 24, 2007). South Africa’s 2010 Cup challenge. July 7, 2006. http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/africa/5141582. stm (accessed December 24, 2007).