WM 2010 South Africa - FIFA World Cup
After missing out on the opportunity of hosting the 2006 FIFA World Cup because of one vote, the excitement in South Africa was enormous when the their bid for the 2010 World Cup got 14 votes out of 24 and it was announced officially that South Africa would host the event in 2010. This announcement was made in May 2004.
A lot of sceptics thought, or still think that South Africa will have a problem with this international event due to i.e. first of all the crime rate, since the country is at present one of the most crime ridden countries of the world or because there is not enough accommodation for the fans, or that the stadiums will not be finished in time or that the transportation infrastructure is not able to cope with the expected visitors.
For a lot of people the money is wasted and should rather be spent on things that would solve the poverty problems that are still very present in large parts of the population but these people should perhaps talk to someone that benefited from the thousands of job opportunities that the event created, like a construction worker on one of the stadium construction sites.
Apart fromthe fact that the preparations going on all over the country should be proof enough for the sceptics that South Africa is very well able to cope with the event, and if they have not accepted the fact by now then they will after a successful World Cup in a little more than 400 days.
To be continued by: The preparation for the World Cup
