| 21-hour jaunt for Dutch fans - 12/07/2010 |
Hundreds of Dutch fans paid 3000 euros (about R29000) for a 21-hour experience of South Africa. And they didn’t expect to sleep a wink.
The Dutch tour group Oranje Camping chartered two planes from Amsterdam for an additional 375 Dutch fans who wanted to see their team play in their third World Cup final. The exuberant group sang and danced with South African World Cup volunteers, who were equally excited to be part of the parade as they marched from the centre of the city to the main railway station.
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Full report in The Times
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| Orange tears and sighs in Amsterdam - 12/07/2010 |
Cities, neighbourhoods and living rooms across the Netherlands fell silent on Sunday night after the national team lost to Spain in the World Cup final, shattering their dream of winning soccer’s biggest tournament.
Despite wild cheering ahead of and during the game, the 1-0 loss in extra time sent some 180 000 orange-clad fans trudging away from Amsterdam’s Museum Square, which had swelled into a mass of people so large that authorities said the city was literally full to capacity.
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Full report on the IOL site
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| SA fan sees record of 38 matches - 08/07/2010fan |
Thulani Ngcobo will have travelled 17 000 kilometres, endured vitamin jabs to boost his sleep-deprived system, and can no longer face a FIFA-sanctioned stadium hotdog, notes a report on the France24 site. But on Sunday, the World Cup final will be the football fanatic’s 38th match, after winning an uber-fan challenge’s grand prize that made him the Guinness World Records holder for most games watched at football’s biggest event.
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Full report on the France24 site
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| Holland goes WC crazy - 07/07/2010 |
Dutch football fans scrambled for pricey, last-minute tickets to South Africa as the country went football crazy after reaching the World Cup final for the first time in 32 years, notes a Mail & Guardian report. Orange flags took over city streets after the national team’s 3-2 win over Uruguay in the semifinal. Some people covered their homes with plastic sheets in the national colour, others wore orange or put it on their cars and bicycles.
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Full report on the Mail and Guardian site
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| Argentinean fan dies in CT - 07/07/2010 |
Argentine media put the death of a football fan from a heart attack at the 2010 World Cup down to an outbreak of hooliganism, notes a report on the IoL site. Luis Forlenza, 57, died in Cape Town, two days after being admitted to hospital in the hours following Argentina’s quarterfinal loss to Germany. The exact circumstances of his death remain unclear and while the Argentine embassy said Forlenza had died of a heart attack,.
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Full report on the IoL site
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| Vuvuzelas banned at Tri-Nations – 07/07/2010 |
New Zealand stadium authorities have moved swiftly to ensure the vuvuzelas providing an ear-splitting backdrop to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa are unlikely to be heard at next year’s rugby equivalent, notes a report on the IoL site. The long plastic horns, likened to the sound of a swarm of angry bees, have already been banned from this weekend’s Tri-Nations opener between the All Blacks and South Africa in Auckland and other stadiums are set to follow suit.
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Full report on the IoL sitereport
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| SA faces WC withdrawal - 05/07/2010WC |
With just seven days left before the World Cup final, clinical psychologists say South Africans are likely to be hit by a wave of low morale, listlessness and depression after the tournament. According to a report on the Iafrica.com site, people and companies have rallied behind the national soccer team, showing their support by buying Bafana Bafana t-shirts, South African flags and other paraphenalia. Bars and restaurants showing big matches have also been very busy.
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Full iafrica.com report
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| Blind fans savour WC vibe - 05/07/2010 |
A revolutionary, enhanced sound experience for blind and visually impaired soccer fans at some World Cup stadiums has been described as ’very worthwhile’ by at least one recipient of the service, notes a Sport24 report. And not even the constant, intrusive din of vuvuzelas appears to have interfered too detrimentally with the experience. So says Claremont, Cape Town resident Jeremy Opperman, who first took advantage of the initiative for the group match in the city between Portugal and North Korea.
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Full Sport24 report
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| Brazilian fan kills himself after loss – 02/07/2010 |
A young Haitian football fan was so distraught at Brazil’s World Cup exit on Friday that he killed himself by leaping in front of a car. According to a report on the IoL site, the 18-year-old died after the incident, which took place in Nerette, on the outskirts of the Haitian capital, following Brazil’s 2-1 defeat by the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.
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Full report on the IOL site
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| PE buzzing with Brazil and Netherlands fans - 02/07/2010 |
Port Elizabeth was a hive of activity this week as the city geared itself for the biggest football match ever played in this part of the country, the World Cup quarter-final between Brazil and the Netherlands, notes a Daily Dispatch report. And they don’t come bigger than a match between five-time world champions the Samba boys of Brazil and, arguably, one of the greatest football nations never to have won the World Cup, the ’Flying Dutchmen’ from the Netherlands.
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Full Daily Dispatch report
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| FIFA Fan Fests a big success - 30/06/2010 |
The FIFA fan fests were a huge success with attendance approaching the four million mark as the World Cup entered the quarter finals, notes a News24 report. FIFA spokesperson Nicolas Maingot said about 1.7 million people had attended fan fests in South Africa, while more than two million had attended in Paris, Rio, Berlin, Rome, Mexico and Sydney. ’We are definitely happy with the fan fests. It was a tremendous success in Germany with 18 million visitors,’ he told journalists at Soccer City.
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Full report on the News24 sitereport
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| Fans queue for quarter final tickets - 29/06/2010 |
Fans have lined up for three hours at a suburban shopping mall in Port Elizabeth to buy the most sought-after ticket in town: entry to Friday’s blockbuster 2010 World Cup quarterfinal between favourites Brazil and the Netherlands. The Times reports that officials are expecting the first ever sellout at the 42, 286-seat Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium after empty seats at all six previous matches at the new stadium.
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Full report in The Times
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| Anger against Capello grows - 28/06/2010Anger |
English commentators launched scathing attacks on their football team’s dire performance against Germany which ended the country’s 2010 World Cup hopes, as calls mounted for Fabio Capello to quit, notes a Sport24 report. Newspapers saved some of their criticism for the referee in the game who disallowed an England goal that had clearly crossed the line, during the country’s heaviest ever defeat in the World Cup finals. But this was nothing compared to the fury directed at the team for their unconvincing effort in Bloemfontein, South Africa, which saw them slump to a 4-1 defeat against their arch-rivals.
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Full Sport24 report
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| England fans let rip at ref - 27/06/2010England |
Humiliated England fans let rip at their team, manager and the referee after being dumped out of the World Cup on Sunday as Germans savoured their rivals’ pain over a disallowed goal after nursing a 44-year grudge. Sport24 reports that many of the fans who had paid a small fortune to travel to South Africa said Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda’s decision not to award a goal after a Frank Lampard’s shot cannoned off a bar and over the line was the game changer.
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Full Sport24 reportSport24
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| Fans barred from baring boobs - 25/06/2010 |
Eager Portuguese fans, waiting for hours to spot the team leaving King Shaka International Airport on Friday, were told by police they could not flash their breasts at the players. And, as the bus eased by, elated fans waved, blew kisses, but restrained themselves from flashing after a threat that they would be arrested. Chantelle De Sousa, 18, a staunch Portugal supporter, was hoping to catch the eye of Cristiano Ronaldo, by flashing her ’assets’.
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Full report on the IOL site
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| Ghana needs SA support - 24/06/2010 |
Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac said he hopes his side will have the support of the entire African continent when they take on the US in Rustenburg on Saturday in the 2010 World Cup’s round of 16, notes a Sport24 report. Despite suffering a 1-0 defeat by Germany on Wednesday, Ghana still went through to the knockout stage as Group D runners-up where they will face the Americans, who won Group C after beating Algeria 1-0 on Wednesday. Ghana now look to be Africa’s sole representative in the last 16 in the first World Cup played on African soil, barring a near-miracle from the Ivory Coast in their final match on Thursday.
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Full Sport24 report
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| Dutch fans to paint CT orange – 23/06/2010 |
As far as the Dutch are concerned, things couldn’t be better in Cape Town. Large numbers of fans of the Dutch soccer team have promised to paint the city centre orange on Thursday for their team’s World Cup match against Cameroon. Sport24 reports that the match will begin at 20:30 at Cape Town Stadium, but thousands of members of the Royal Netherlands Football Association, Supporter’s Club Oranje and De Oranjecamping were expected at the official FIFA Fan Fest at the Grand Parade in the early afternoon.
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Full Sport24 report
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| French fans cheer for Bafana - 23/06/2010 |
French fans in Paris groaned and booed for their own team on Tuesday and even cheered for South Africa as they watched a critical 2010 World Cup match that came after the squad’s public infighting left the nation ashamed and aghast. Sport24 reports that several thousand people, some wearing or waving French fans, showed up to watch the match broadcast on a screen across from the Eiffel Tower.
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Full Sport24 reportSport24
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| Soccer fans die in car crash – 22/06/2010 |
Four friends from Lenasia have been killed on their way home from a World Cup game in Nelspruit when a truck smashed into them, notes a report on the IoL site. Cousins Achmed, and Mohamed Kolia and their friends Mohamed Jada and Raadia Pelwaan, were returning from the Italy-New Zealand game. The four were killed instantly. It is believed the truck, travelling in the opposite direction, was trying to avoid another truck that appeared from a side road. It hit another car before finally ramming into the Opel Corsa carrying the five football fans.
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Full report on the IOL site
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| Fan confronts Beckham - 19/06/2010 |
England have complained to FIFA that one of their fans got into the team dressing room after the 0-0 draw with Algeria and had angry words with David Beckham. Many of the 25,000 England fans in the Cape Town Stadium booed the players off the field after Friday’s poor performance, which left the team in danger of being eliminated at the group stage. The Football Association said they had complained that one fan managed to get through security and into the dressing room.
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Full Sport 24 report
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| More hooligans deported – 17/06/2010 |
Seventeen more Argentinian hooligans will be deported in the next two days after they were detained in Pretoria. Five other fans, whose activities police were monitoring, voluntarily left the country. The Sowetan reports that members of the dog unit raided Christian Progressive School in Pretoria, where 165 Argentinian fans were staying. National joint operational and intelligence structure spokesperson Brigadier Sally de Beer said: ’The police have been monitoring the activities of this group. They had identified several persons whose continued presence in this country could be a threat to public order and stability and could even disrupt the 2010 World Cup.’
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Full report in The Sowetan
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| Fans fail to arrive – 14/06/2010 |
FIFA is investigating why as many as 8 000 fans failed to arrive for Saturday’s clash between Greece and South Korea at the first World Cup match to kick off at the purpose-built R2.1billion Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, notes a Daily Dispatch report. But despite what is being viewed as ’teething problems’ with the Eastern Cape’s inaugural World Cup fixture, authorities have described it as a resounding security and logistical feat in spite of fears the region would not be ready to host the tournament, with no major crimes reported over the weekend.
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Full Daily Dispatch report
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| FIFA fan parks a success – 14/06/2010 |
The 2010 World Cup show might be unfolding here in South Africa’s stadiums, but such is the passion of fans around the globe, to watch the matches in a stadium atmosphere that the FIFA fan parks are turning into an incredible success story. According to a alAfrica.com report, FIFA has created 16 official fan parks where fans, here in South Africa, and at some locations across the world can go and watch the live transmission of the World Cup action on giant screens at a central place.
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Full allAfrica.com report
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| WC to expensive for fans - 13/06/2010 |
Two-thirds of soccer enthusiasts in 23 nations feel the first World Cup finals on African soil has become too expensive for fans to enjoy, notes a Mail & Guardian report. Hosts South Africa kicked off the 2010 tournament on Friday with a 1-1 draw against Mexico who scored an equaliser late in the second half, breaking the hearts of fans in the Soccer City stadium who had hoped their underdog team may have begun the competition with a win.
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Full Mail & Guardian report
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| Aussies to go for TV record - 13/06/2010 |
Five Australians will attempt to break a Guinness World Record by watching television continuously for more than 86 hours during the 2010 World Cup, notes a report in The Australian. The soccer fanatics will embark on the marathon viewing session at 3pm in Sydney, and hope to stay awake until at least 5am on Thursday. Should they manage it, their efforts will be written into history as the new record holders, snatching the title from couch potato Efraim van Oeveren of The Netherlands who watched telly for 86 hours straight in 2009.
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Full report in The Australian
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| Fans converge on Soccer City – 11/06/2010 |
Soccer fans from around the world began converging on Soccer City stadium for the opening match of the first World Cup in Africa, with excitement levels in the host country running at fever pitch. Sport24 reports that the foghorn sound of vuvuzelas rang out across Johannesburg from dawn on as thousands of fans began making their way by bus, train or on foot to the giant stadium in Soweto. ’Make us proud’, the Sowetan daily urged the national side Bafana Bafana in its front-page headline.
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Full Sport24 reportSport24
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| Free chicken for Mexican losers – 10/06/2010 |
Chicken outlet Nando’s, known for its wacky sense of humour, has promised players of the Mexican team free chicken if their team loses Friday’s match against South Africa, notes a report on the IoL site. The fine print says: ’Dear Mexican players, most foreigners think South Africa is rife with bribery and corruption. To live up to your misconceptions, we’re offering you and your spectators a free lunch if you lose on Friday. Just bring your valid Mexican passport into any Nando’s restaurant...’
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Full report on the IoL site
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