PROJECT 2010 - Preparing South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™

Project 2010 - A Twenty Ten Media and Marketing Initiative

PREPARING SOUTH AFRICA FOR THE WORLD

Fifteen years have passed since the idea of hosting the first World Cup on African soil was first raised. As a service to our readers, Project 2010 has compiled a detailed account of how this vision became a reality.

1. Strange days indeed

Soccer, like every aspect of life during the apartheid era, was affected by race. South Africans played the sport like they lived, divided. The structures were defined by the whites-only Football Association of South Africa (Fasa), the SA Indian Football Association (Saifa), the SA Bantu Football Association (Sabfa) and the SA Coloured Football Association (Sacfa).

Clubs in the lucrative and successful white leagues played in segregated stadiums with their players feeding the national squad. With limited resources and funding, ‘non-whites’ were left to ply their trade in inadequate facilities. At the same time, on the dusty fields of South Africa’s townships, the beautiful game took root.

Massive crowds packed into venues like the Orlando Stadium in Soweto to pay tribute to Patson Banda, Kaizer Motaung, Jomo Sono, Ace Ntsoelengwe and a legion of other players who worked their way into folklore with their extraordinary brand of African football. In 1958, Fifa had officially recognised Fasa, as the sport’s sole governing leading to the launch of the National Football League the following year.

But in 1962, global soccer’s governing body suspended South Africa over its racial policies, despite attempts by Fasa to incorporate black players. In 1963, it lifted the suspension, and Fasa responded by announcing that the country would send an all-white side to the 1966 World Cup in England, and a black team to Mexico for the following edition in 1970.

South Africa was subsequently suspended again in 1964 and then expelled in 1976 when the Soweto uprising began. In this vacuum, Fasa was relaunched as the Football Council of South Africa and, after 85 years of segregated soccer the country’s black and white soccer bodies finally merged to form the National Professional Soccer League in 1977.

However, it did little to appease the international community which was growing increasingly frustrated by the absurdity of the South African situation. There were real signs of hope in 1985 when the professional soccer structures merged under the auspices of a new National Soccer League.

2. Into the light

On February 2, 1990, President F.W De Klerk announced that all apartheid legislation would be repealed and the African National Congress and other organisations would be unbanned with immediate effect. Within days, struggle icon Nelson Mandela was released from prison and unity talks were set up.

This period of reconciliation also saw negotiations being conducted at every level of soccer and, in, 1991, four historically divided bodies agreed to launch the South African Football Association which was based on non-racial, democratic principles. Its mission statement pledged to promote Africa's ascendancy in world soccer through the hosting of major events, while aspiring and striving to become a leading soccer nation.

The following year, the body was welcomed into the African fold at an emotional Confederation of African Football congress in Dakar and, shortly afterwards, it was admitted as a full Fifa member at the organisation's congress in June 1992. After years of isolation, South Africans were salivating over the prospects of seeing how their national side would compete on the world stage.

Safa invited Cameroon to South Africa. The Indomitable lions had shocked the world by beating Argentina 1-0 in the opening fixture of the 1990 World Cup. They went on to become the first African team to reach the quarterfinals of the World Cup, losing to England in extra time.

Nevertheless, on July 7, 1992, South Africa served notice that it could hold its own by beating Cameroon 1-0 at King's Park Stadium in Durban. While millions saluted the team, it proved to be a false dawn. South Africa which began making up for all the lost years of isolation with a sudden blur of international fixtures, was caught off-guard.

The lack of international experience showed as the team lost four matches in a row - to Cameroon, Zambia, Nigeria and Zambia - in failing to qualify for the 1994 African Nations Cup. Nevertheless, Bafana Bafana or ‘the boys’ as the team became known played an important role in uniting the country in the heady days leading up to the first all-race elections.

Mark Fish, Lucas Radebe and Mark Williams became household names and no South African was more proud of these ambassadors than Nelson Mandela. While the world was captivated by his inauguration as the country’s first democratically elected leader, ‘Madiba’ had other things on his mind.

He slipped away during the official inauguration celebrations to join 80 000 spectators at a friendly international between South Africa and Zambia at Ellis Park. Buoyed by his support, the hosts ran out 2-1 winners.

3. United at last

Ironically, it took a white man’s sport – rugby – to lay the groundwork for a successful bid to host the 2010 World Cup. When South Africa was awarded the rights to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the country was dangerously divided.

The years following the unbanning of the African National Congress had not been easy for this former land of apartheid which was now teetering towards black majority rule. If any sport symbolised the might of Afrikanderdom it was rugby. For decades, the all-white Springboks had represented all that was wrong about apartheid South Africa.

In his acclaimed book Playing the Enemy, John Carlin describes how Nelson Mandela first formed the idea of harnessing the political power of sport while he was in prison and how he had used the 1995 Rugby World Cup as an instrument in the grand strategic purpose he set himself during his five years as South Africa’s first democratically elected president: to reconcile blacks and whites and create the conditions for lasting peace in a country that had contained all the conditions for civil war.

For the record, the Springboks won a nail-shredding final against New Zealand (in extra time) and all of South Africa celebrated wildly. Images of Mandela handing the William Webb Ellis trophy to Afrikaans captain Francois Pienaar were flashed around the world. South Africa, it seemed had finally overcome its troubled past.

For administrators of the country’s most popular sport, the success of that tournament provided proof that the country could host a tournament that would dwarf the Rugby World Cup in every way. So much would depend on whether Bafana Bafana would be able to hold their own on the world stage.

There was a spectacular turn-around in the team’s fortune’s when South Africa hosted the 1996 African Nations Cup. because Kenya, the original hosts, weren’t capable of doing so. Bafana Bafana relishing their home ground advantage , beat Cameroon and Ghana to secure a place in the final.

A capacity crowd witnessed Bafana beat Tunisia 2-0 and Mandela, wearing a Bafana shirt, presented the trophy to captain Neil Tovey. Once again, the entire nation was wrapped up in a wave of euphoria.

Sunday Times journalist Luke Alfred said it was as if fiction had overwhelmed fact and South Africans were living in a story or a dream. ‘The story was so neat, so symmetrical — with an identifiable beginning, middle and deliriously happy end — that looking back it’s as if it were almost preordained. Like victory in the Rugby World Cup the year before, this was the world’s way of welcoming South Africa back into international sport.’

4. Bidding for glory

Since its inception in 1930, the rights to host the quadrennial showpiece of international football switched between Europe and South America. That only changed when FIFA voted for the tournament to be staged in the US in 1994. It was at the opening fixture of that tournament – Germany versus Bolivia at Soldier in Chicago on June 10, 1994 – that the seeds to host the World Cup in South Africa were planted.

On his return to Johannesburg, Safa President Solomon ‘Stix’ Morewa wrote to Fifa expressing his country’s interest in staging the tournament in 2006. Danny Jordaan, who was fast becoming a heavyweight administrator, first began raising the prospects of preparing South Africa to launch a successful bid to host the event.

In 1997 the Safa Executive Committee adopted a formal and binding resolution to bid to host the 2006 World Cup. The South Africa 2006 World Cup Bid Committee was subsequently formed at the head of a section 21 company. The decision was taken to officially launch the bid during the 1998 African Cup of Nations tournament.

After presenting South Africa’s case, to both the CAF executive and representatives of all the national associations, the message was clear: South Africa met every requirement that had been laid down by Fifa, and the continent was ready to host the tournament for the first time. Jordaan received a standing ovation and the bid process was underway.

What followed a gruelling international marketing campaign to sell the idea. The first major stumbling block came before the end of that year when Morocco – just four days before the 31 December deadline – declared its intention to follow suit and bid as well. The problem was CAF had failed to formally endorse a lone bid from South Africa and now, along with Morocco which had previously bid, Egypt Nigeria and Ghana had registered their candidacy with Fifa.

The challenge was now to persuade the other African nations – which were capitalising on Fifa President Sepp Blatter’s pledge to see Africa host the event in 2006 – to withdraw. By mid-1999, Egypt, Ghana and Nigeria had pulled out, leaving Morocco as the only other African candidate. In terms of the other contenders, Germany had emerged as the strongest contenders.

They had a firm grip on seven of the eight European votes. Brazil was also bidding, but its campaign was hindered by the public opposition by Pele who had thrown his support behind SA. South Africa’s 2006 bid proposed a total of 13 stadia, nine of which already existed. On 21 March an arrangement was discussed where by Brazil would withdraw from the 2006 contest and the three South American votes would effectively swing to SA on condition that South Africa would then back a South American bid in 2010.

The additional votes would take SA’s tally to 11 – still one shy of the 12 which were necessary for an outright victory. England’s campaign fizzled out when a group of hooligans ran riot during the European Championships. On the eve of the vote, Germany and SA were running neck and neck. FIFA’s technical inspection report said both countries were ‘very well qualified to stage the World Cup’.

England had been graded only third, followed by Brazil and Morocco. South Africa proceeded to the later round of the voting process after beating England, Morocco and Libya. The 24 Fifa members were now tasked with deciding whether Germany or South Africa would secure the rights to host the event. After a drawn-out two-and-a-half hour ballot, Fifa President Sepp Blatter emerged with the news that just one vote separated the countries.

His announcement that the 2006 World Cup would go to ‘Deutschland’ sparked an outcry in South Africa, especially when news began filtering in of the extraordinary drama that had preceded the vote. The ageing Oceania official, Charles Dempsey, whose mandate from his federation was to vote for South Africa should England lose out in the early rounds, had handed the tournament to Germany by default.

Citing ‘enormous pressure’ Dempsey had taken it upon himself to abstain from the final vote, against the mandate of his own confederation. It was the first time in World Cup history that the host nation was decided on an abstention. Had Dempsey stayed the course, the vote would have been split and Blatter, an ardent supporter of the South African bid would have cast the deciding vote. But it was not to be, and the South African delegation which had flown to Zurich sat stunned as the news spread around the world.

While few South Africans had ever heard of Dempsey, overnight he became the most hated man in the country. ‘Et tu Charles’ was one of the headlines which summed up the mood in South Africa. There was even a song titled ‘Dempsey o lerabele’ (Dempsey, you are a counter-revolutionary). New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, Dempsey’s own football region and millions of New Zealanders also rounded on him. Dempsey was so shaken by the outcry that for years that he became a recluse in his Auckland home.

Two years later, Local Organising Committee CEO Danny Jordaan swallowed his pride – and bitter disappointment – to visit Dempsey and tell him that South Africa bore him no grudges. ‘I told him we weren't angry with him because South Africans don't believe in building the future based on the grievances of the past. He told me his life had become a misery. People abused him whenever he walked down the street, so he had decided not to go out. He had been mauled in the media,’ Jordaan said.

In 2008, Dempsey died at the age of 86, unable to fulfil a personal dream and take up Jordaan’s offer to attend the 2010 World Cup as a special guest.

5. ‘I can see my grave now’

The international outcry that followed the controversial decision to award the tournament to Germany saw FIFA change its policy to rotate the event between football federations. As a result, the next edition of the tournament would go to Africa for the first time.

For the bruised runners-up of the 2006 vote, it was a lifeline. Four other African nations placed bids to host the events - Egypt , Libya (to co-host with Tunisia) and, once again, Morocco. Fifa officials visited South Africa for a total of 155 hours between 30 October and 5 November 2003.

They concluded that South Africa had the potential to organise an ‘excellent’ World Cup, compared to Egypt and Morocco’s potential to organise ‘very good’ World Cups, Tunisia’s potential to organise a ‘good’ World Cup, and the probability that Libya would ‘face great difficulties in organising a World Cup to the standards required’.

Following the decision by Fifa not to allow co-hosted tournaments (the 2002 edition which had been staged in Japan and South Korea had been a logistical nightmare), Tunisia withdrew from the bidding process. Fifa also decided not to consider Libya’s solo bid as it no longer met all the stipulations laid down in the official List of Requirements.

Following the debacle of the previous voting process, the 2010 Bid Committee took no chances and invited the country’s three living Nobel laureates – Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela and FW De Klerk – to attend the event. This time, it was an altogether different story. After one round of voting, South Africa (14 votes) was awarded the rights to host the tournament, defeating Morocco (10 votes) and Egypt (0 votes).

Blatter’s announcement that South Africa would finally host the World Cup was met with screams of delight and a chorus of vuvuzelas among the large delegation of South Africans who had flown to Zurich for the announcement. The defining image showed Mandela, fighting back the tears, as he lifted the most famous trophy on the planet. ‘I can see my grave now. I shall be withdrawing from public life at the end of this month,’ world statesman Mandela told reporters.

Back home, millions of South Africans who had watched the announcement in public viewing arenas and bars and restaurants enjoyed the biggest celebration since the country had won the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

6. Lessons from Germany

One of the blessings that emerged from South Africa’s defeat to Germany for the 2006 bid vote was that the extra four years had given the 2010 hosts crucial extra time to prepare for the event. And Germany also gifted South Africa with some important lessons.

Branding expert Nikolaus Eberl says his homeland had entered a state of collective depression about 18 months before the tournament. At the time everyone in Germany thought that the 2006 World Cup was doomed, ‘a disaster waiting to happen’. However, six months before kick off, a Friendliness Campaign was launched.

As Eberl puts it, Germany's secret weapon to winning the World Cup of the hearts. ‘This campaign was taken across Germany and people just took a liking to it. German people wanted to prove to the rest of the world that they were not just sour and unfriendly, but that they too had hearts and emotions’.

Eberl said the goal wasn't only used to host a successful World Cup, but also to improve the country's image abroad. The government, big business and the fan on the street united behind a holistic brand campaign. The ‘Germany — Land of Ideas’ initiative used the 2006 World Cup to improve the economy, attract international investment and produce a safe, profitable and spectacular tournament.

The hosts may not have made it to the final but, at the end of the day, it didn’t seem to matter. Images of millions of football-loving supporters, draped in black, yellow and red were flashed around the world. Germany, it seemed, had finally transcended its troubled legacy and liberated itself.

The bitter controversy over the disputed vote for the rights to host 2006, was now a thing of the past. As part of the peace offerings, the victors in that battle had pledged to assist South Africa with its preparations.

As a result, some of the world’s finest stadium designers, structural engineers, security experts and other authorities set their sites on modifying and improving Germany’s 2006 model.

7. The hard work begins

With the long, winding and emotional bid campaign behind, the task of preparing for the world’s biggest single-code sporting event began in earnest. Hundreds of South Africans, new to staging an event of this magnitude, began laying the foundations for 2010.

Within months of the successful vote, the skylines of every host city were dotted with cranes, towering over stadiums and other World Cup-related projects. One of the most pleasing aspects of this post-honeymoon period was the enormous enthusiasm that was generated neighbouring countries for the tournament.

Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland and even troubled Zimbabwe all set up 2010 task teams to ensure that they would make the most of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity this mega-tournament presented.

Throughout the region, tourism facilities were upgraded along with roads, airports and stadia. Further afield, World Cup heavyweights Angola, Cameroon, Senegal and Nigeria also explored avenues to ensure that they will enjoy some of the benefits from the event.

8. The Parreira era

When Safa set its sights on securing a coach who could finally end the malaise, the squad had managed to sink to new lows. Ted Dumitru, who had stepped in at the last minute following Stuart Baxters resignation, saw his team crash out of the 2008 Africa Cup of with a brand of bland and lethargic football.

Morale was down and Bafana’s public ratings had plummeted to its lowest levels. Even more worrying was the fact that the team had dropped another 20 places in the Fifa rankings and had, for the first time in a decade, fallen outside the top 10 on the continental rankings.

Since winning the 1996 African Cup of Nations, the decline in fortunes had been steady (runners up in 1998, third place in 2000, quarter-finals in 2002 and first round in 2006). Enter Carlos Parreira, Brazil's 1994 World Cup winning coach who was secured by Safa on a R1.9 million a month salary. He signed a four-year contract having led four national teams to the World Cup - Kuwait (1982), United Arab Emirates (1990), Brazil (1994 and 2006) and Saudi Arabia (1998) - during a 38-year career.

When Parreira finally winged his way to South Africa, he made it clear that his focus was 2010 and everything else would be a learning curve. But he also spoke of a new dawn, a revival for a team which had lost its way. The 16th national coach in 17 years began his tenure with a 3-0 win over Chad in March 2007. Bafana qualified for the 2008 African Nations Cup in Ghana.

The team failed to reach the second round and the criticism was fast and furious. Nevertheless, there were some positives. After all, two points and three goals from their three games was two points and three goals better than the previous tournament in Egypt in 2006.

Neil Tovey, the skipper of the triumphant 1996 African Cup of Nations squad pointed out an interesting irony between the class of ’96 and the current crop. Back then, coach Clive Barker relied mostly on home-grown talent with most of the players plying their trade in the local Premier Soccer League. But then the exodus began.

Many of Europe’s top sides - the likes of Manchester United, Lazio and FC Porto - began looking to Africa as a breeding ground for skilled (and relatively inexpensive) players. Hundreds of the continent’s brightest stars made the move up north, and not a single club in Africa was capable of buying them back.

2010 Local Organising Committee Chairman Irvin Khoza has complained bitterly about this problem: ’We must restore our dignity and stop being a feeder continent for Europe.’ While players like MacBeth Sibaya, Benni McCarthy, Bradley Carnell and Delron Buckley have been shining examples of African talent, they have, to a certain degree, left the local game in the lurch.

Parreira attempted to remedy the situation by creating a pool of local talent in order to form the nucleus of the 2010 squad. There were some impressive results. An emphatic 3-0 victory over Paraguay (50 places higher in the FIFA rankings) in an international friendly in June 2008 provided plenty of hope. And it gave South Africans reason to believe in Parreira and his methods.

There were parallels with 2002 World Cup co-hosts South Korea who had failed to secure a single victory in the previous five tournaments. A year before they were due to host the World Cup, they were languishing in 42nd place in the world rankings.

In stepped foreign coach Guus Hiddink who had previously led both Real Madrid and Holland. Like Parreira, he brought his own flair and style and, like Parreira, he laid down his own rules. The results were more than impressive. In less than two years, he produced a string of impressive victories (Poland, Portugal, Italy and Spain) and the dream only ended in the semi-finals with a defeat against World Cup giants Germany.

But 18 months after he had taken up his position, Parreira dropped a bombshell; he would be resigning to return to Brazil where his wife was battling with cancer.

9. Thunder clouds form

In June, 2008, South Africa was plunged into the greatest crisis in the post-apartheid-era. A nation that, for so long, has been a shining light for so many displayed its dark side with the outbreak of violence against foreigners.

An estimated 80 people were killed while thousands sought shelter in police stations and churches around the country. Shops and homes were looted and burnt in working class districts. The attacks which began in the townships of Alexandra and Diepsloot outside Johannesburg spread to Zandspruit, Tembisa, Primrose, Reiger Park, Thokoza and even the Johannesburg city centre.

As government and the security forces scrambled to contain the carnage, it was evident that the 2010 World Cup was now under threat. For the Fifa executive which was holding its annual congress in Sydney at the time, it was a deeply worrying development.

‘We took note with concern the latest development in South Africa. This is terrible ... we are concerned about it and we deplore (it),’ said Fifa President Sepp Blatter. There were growing calls for the governing body to move the tournament from South Africa.

‘The current wave of xenophobic attacks by black South Africans against foreign black nationals seeking refuge in South Africa, and the unacceptable levels of violent crime in our country, makes South Africa an unworthy host for the 2010 World Cup soccer event. The revenue that the 2010 World Cup will bring to South Africa will not be liberating those who are oppressed in Africa, but merely empowering further oppression of its people,’ said Johannesburg resident Leon van Greunen in a letter to FIFA.

The situation got even darker when the country experienced a major power crisis, forcing load shedding throughout the country. State utility Eskom acknowledged that ‘we are in for a rough ride’.

Just when it seemed the situation couldn’t get much worse, Blatter sparked an outcry when he conceded that there was a Plan B for World Cup 2010, should South Africa prove incapable of hosting the event. ‘I would be a very negligent president if I hadn’t put away in a drawer somewhere a plan B,’ said Blatter.

His comments were triggered by missed deadlines on key 2010 projects, labour disputes and, of the course, the wave of pessimism that had enveloped the 2010 host country. Among the problems, a wildcat strike at the construction site at the Green Point stadium (the second in a month) sent tempers soaring to dangerous levels.

In Johannesburg, work on the R25 billion Gautrain rapid-rail project was disrupted by a wage dispute. Concerns were raised about whether the first phase of the project will be finished in time for the World Cup. In Durban, the volatile renaming debate was back in the news after the ANC-led council reportedly ’bulldozed ahead’ with its list of preferred (and controversial) names for buildings and roads in the 2010 host city.

Opposition parties in the eThekwini Municipality were threatening to embark on protest action again if the ANC continues with the name changes. And to add to the woes, foreign missions began pressing the government to tell them about its security plan for the tournament. One European embassy official reportedly said assurances of security would ’allay common fears’ for the fans considering travelling to SA for the tournament.

Not surprisingly, the international media had a field day. The influential Guardian claimed that Fifa has been forced to build a £400-million contingency fund to cater for the possible collapse of the tournament, saying ’the problem is they need 10 stadiums and some of these are rugby grounds that are run-down and in a very bad condition’.

Fifa demanded a retraction, saying it is public knowledge that reserves are built, among other reasons, to be able to cope with a World Cup cancellation ’and we have never made any reference to 2010 in particular’. The political crisis In Zimbabwe continued to make headline news around the world, while bitter in-fighting within South Africa's ruling ANC intensified concerns about the levels of political instability.

The protracted in-fighting in the ruling African National Congress that saw Jacob Zuma win the leadership of the party and the recalling of President Thabo Mkeki raised the question about whether the political turmoil would hamper 2010 progress, especially given that some Mbeki allies were closely involved in the preparations.

As the dust settled, it emerged that highly respected finance minister Trevor Manuel was staying on, while new faces came on to the LOC to replace some who had been there by virtue of cabinet and other posts that they had held while Mbeki was president. There were also growing concerns over the levels of violent crime and the discord within the security forces as was evidenced with a shoot-out between striking metro police and SA Police Services members.

Professor Elrena van der Spuy of the Centre of Criminology at UCT said it had huge implications for 2010 and the prospects for cooperative relations as the responsibility for managing order would be shared between three tiers of armed security: the SAPS, metro police and private security forces.

10. Signs of hope

Despite all the problems South Africa was facing, there was a lifeline in the form of the 2010 World Cup. Fortunately, most stadium and other 2010-related construction projects remained on track which helped to lift the pall of gloom which had enveloped much of the country.

So impressive was the progress on some of the projects that FIFA President Sepp Blatter conceded that ‘there is no Plan B’ and the World Cup would be staged in South Africa, irrespective of the country’s problems. A key turning point came with Durban’s hosting of the 2010 Preliminary Draw in December 2007.

Thousands of delegates were transported, registered, protected and wined and dined by the 2010 Local Organising Committee, city of Durban officials an army of volunteers. In addition, the Premier Soccer League fixture between Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates- the two biggest club sides in Africa - was especially moved to Durban and broadcast throughout Africa and 43 European countries, a first for South African football.

There was more good news on the security front. Government, the police and security forces began feverishly preparing for the World Cup. Billions of rands were spent on acquiring hi-tech equipment and recruiting tens of thousands of extra personnel. The most comprehensive security plan in South African history saw 14 different government departments conducting joint operations in and around the 2010 host cities. In addition, police agencies from around the world were invited to provide 16 to 20 police officers to accompany their visiting teams.

And 24/7 special courts were set up to deal with any suspects. For the duration of the World Cup, all aircraft flying within 50 nautical miles of a stadium would be deemed to be in military airspace. Working closely with civil aviation, even the air crews would need to be pre-approved. On the sporting front, team South Africa also began showing signs of peaking at the right time. In December, 2008, Time magazine noted that after winning the Rugby World Cup in 2007, South Africa’s cricketers now stand atop the world ranking ’and for once, that old adage the "rainbow nation" genuinely applies’.

’In 2010, SA hosts the soccer World Cup. It won’t win, but the success of its cricketers as they put the once-invincible Australians to the sword will have done nothing but lift South Africa’s spirits as it prepares for the world’s biggest sporting event.’ Closer to home, the Sunday Times newspaper predicted that although this country would endure hard times in 2009, the gaze will be lifted to the World Cup: ’We should not underestimate the effect this spectacle will have on our nation’s fortunes, lifting our mood and focusing world attention on our country’s infrastructure.’

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