The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the 19th FIFA World Cup, the premier international football tournament. It is scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa. The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the culmination of a qualification process that began in August 2007 and involved 204 of the 208 FIFA national teams. As such, it matches the 2008 Summer Olympics as the sports event with the most competing nations.
This will be the first time that the tournament has been hosted by an African nation, after South Africa beat Morocco and Egypt in an all-African bidding process. This decision left the Oceania Football Confederation as the only confederation yet to host the FIFA World Cup. Italy are the defending champions. The draw for the finals took place on 4 December 2009 in Cape Town.
As the host nation, South Africa qualified automatically for the tournament. Nonetheless South Africa participated in World Cup qualifiers because the CAF qualifiers also served as the qualifying tournament for the 2010 African Cup of Nations. They were the first host since 1934 to participate in preliminary qualifying. As happened in the previous tournament, the defending champions were not given an automatic berth, and Italy had to participate in qualification.
In 2005, the organisers released a provisional list of twelve venues to be used for the World Cup: Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg (two venues), Kimberley, Nelspruit, Orkney, Polokwane, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria, and Rustenburg.
Preparation
Five new stadiums have been built for the tournament, and five of the existing venues are to be upgraded. Construction costs are expected to be R8.4bn.[13]
In addition to the stadiums being built and upgraded, South Africa is also planning to improve its current public transport infrastructure within the various cities, with projects such as the Gautrain and the new Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT) titled Rea Vaya.[14] Danny Jordaan, the president of the 2010 World Cup organising committee, has said that he expects all stadiums for the tournament to be completed by October 2009.[15]
The country is also going to implement special measures to ensure the safety and security of local and international tourists attending the matches in accordance with standard FIFA requirements,[16] including a temporary restriction of flight operation in the airspace surrounding the stadiums.[17]
The readiness of this African nation to host one of the biggest events in a sports that is worshiped by millions has received positive response from FIFA. FIFA has rated the readiness of South Africa at eight on a scale of 10 [18] with the hope that they would be completely ready before the matches actually start.
Construction strike
70,000 construction workers[19] who were supposed to be working on the new stadiums walked off their jobs on 8 July 2009. The majority of the workers receive R2500 per month (about £192, €224 or $313), but the unions allege that some workers are grossly underpaid. A spokesperson for the National Union of Mineworkers said to the SABC that the "no work no pay" strike will go on until FIFA assesses penalties on the organisers. Other unions threatened to strike into 2011. The World Cup organising committee downplayed the strike and expressed confidence that the stadiums will be ready.[20][21][22]Transportation
Major road networks have been improved to cater for the expected influx of people coming to the country who will be traveling to and from the match stadiums. The Gautrain (underground rail network) will be complete in time for the opening game, but only limited lengths of the route.Major metros have also updated their current public bus systems to cater for visitors. Websites such as Vaya Nathi have been created for host city visitors to view bus route information in host cities.
Final draw
See also: 2010 FIFA World Cup seeding
The FIFA Organising Committee approved the procedure for the Final Draw on 2 December 2009. The seeding was based on the October 2009 FIFA World Ranking and seven squads joined hosts South Africa as seeded teams for the Final Draw. The committee also approved the composition of the other pots as well as the procedure for the final draw. Pot 2 was composed of teams from Asia, Oceania, and North and Central America and the Caribbean. Pot 3 included teams from Africa and South America. Pot 4 had the remaining European teams.Hosts South Africa was automatically positioned as A1; the other seeded teams were drawn into the other groups B–H, but were always in position 1 of their group. Groups were drawn from A to H and the positions in the group were drawn for Pots 2 to 4. Geographical criteria also were respected, meaning that no two teams from the same confederation were drawn in the same group (except European teams, where a maximum of two will be in a group); i.e., South Africa cannot play the African teams from Pot 3 and Argentina and Brazil cannot be drawn against the three remaining South American teams. The first two African teams drawn from Pot 3 are placed with Argentina and Brazil. Similarly, hosts South Africa may not be paired with any of the other African nations
Mascot
The official mascot for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is Zakumi (born 16 June 1994 ), an anthropomorphised leopard with green hair, presented on 22 September 2008. His name comes from "ZA", the international abbreviation for South Africa, and "kumi", a word that means "ten" in various African languages.[36] The mascot's colours reflect those of the host nation's playing strip – yellow and green.
Zakumi's birthdate coincides with a day known and celebrated as Youth Day in South Africa and their second group match. The year 1994 marks the first non-racial nationwide elections in South Africa. He will turn 16 in 2010.[37] Andries Odendaal, from Cape Town, created the original character design.[38]
Zakumi's official motto is: "Zakumi's game is Fair Play." The motto was seen in the digital advertisement boards during the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, and it will also appear at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.[37]
A contract for the manufacture of Zakumi figurines was awarded to a company owned Dr. Shiaan-Bin Huang[39], who is an ANC representative member in the South African parliament[40]. The manufacture of the figurines was outsourced to Shanghai Fashion Plastic Products in the PRC[39]. The value of the contract was in excess of USD 112 million[citation needed]. Due to concerns over the loss of jobs in the South African manufacturing sector, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has suggested that more 2010 merchandise be sourced locally.[41] Allegation of sweatshop conditions at the Shanghai Fashion Plastic Products factory led to an audit by Global Brands Group (master licensee of the Fifa World Cup 2010 brand), which revealed a number of non-compliance issues with GBC policies[39]. The manufacturer denied the allegations of sweatshop conditions and claimed that the working conditions at the Shanghai Fashion Plastic Products factory were "very good"[42]
Match Ball
The match ball for the 2010 FIFA World Cup will be named the Jabulani, made by Adidas, which means "bringing joy to everyone" in isiZulu. The number eleven plays a prominent role in the new technologically advanced ball: it is the eleventh World Cup match ball made by the German sports equipment maker; it features eleven colours, one for each player on the pitch; and there are eleven official languages in South Africa. The event will also start on the eleventh day of June and end on the eleventh day of July.[43][44] A special match ball with gold panels will be used at the final held in Johannesburg. The ball will be called the "Jo'bulani", playing off Johannesburg's nickname of "The Golden City".
The ball was also used as the match ball of the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, and a special version of the ball, the Jabulani Angola, was the match ball of the 2010 African Cup of Nations. This ball is also used in the 2010 Clausura Tournament of Argentina as well as the 2010 MLS season in the USA in the league's colours of blue and green.
The ball is constructed using a new design, consisting of eight thermally-bonded, three-dimensional panels. These are spherically-moulded from ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) and thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU). The surface of the ball is textured with grooves, a technology developed by Adidas called GripnGroove[45] that is intended to improve the ball's aerodynamics. The design has received considerable academic input, being developed in partnership with researchers from Loughborough University, United Kingdom.[46]
The balls are made in China, using latex bladder made in India, thermoplastic polyurethane-elastomer from Taiwan, ethylene vinyl acetate, isotropic polyester/cotton fabric, glue and ink from China. [47]
Controversies
- Evictions
Another prominent controversy surrounding preparations for the World Cup is the N2 Gateway housing project in Cape Town, which plans to remove over 20,000 residents from the Joe Slovo Informal Settlement along the busy N2 Freeway and build rental flats and bond-houses in its place in time for the 2010 World Cup.[62] The residents would be moved to the poverty stricken Delft township on the outskirts of the city and out of sight from the N2 Freeway.[63][64][65] There has been particular concern about forced removals to the Blikkiesdorp camp in Delft and that in Durban, children are being forcibly removed from the city centre.[66]
In July 2009, South Africa was hit with rolling protests by poor communities who demanded access to basic services, jobs, adequate housing and the democratisation of service delivery. These protests have been linked to the World Cup as protesters complain that public funds are being diverted away from social issues to build stadiums and upgrade airports.[67] [68] Fears have been expressed that the growing protests by shack dwellers could result in the tournament being disrupted.[69][70] Some grassroots social movements have called for a boycott of the event.[71]
- Human rights
- Blikkiesdorp
- Crime and security
South Africa and others have expressed concerns that the World Cup will stimulate and be a boon to the illicit sex trade.[82][83]
- Non-FIFA events
- FIFA Trademarks
- Broadcast rights fees issue in Singapore
With only about a month left before the tournament, FIFA finally relented and reportedly reduced the fee to SGD$21 million (USD$15 million), which was then accepted by the Singapore TV operators. This reduced fee was still significantly higher than the fee that FIFA charged Starhub for the exclusive rights to broadcast the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals tournament in Germany which was reported to be SGD$15 million (US$11 million).
This increased fee for the 2010 World Cup tournament broadcast rights resulted in the Singapore TV operators passing on the cost to their subscribers who were then charged a special fee of SGD$94 (US$68) in addition to existing contracts, to watch the tournament's games. This high additional fee was the most expensive in the region and angered Singapore football fans[95] who felt it was unfair when compared to countries in the region that will either be broadcasting the matches free of charge as in the case of Indonesia and Thailand; or at significantly lower viewing fees at US$21 as in Malaysia and US$38 in Hong Kong.[96] This fee is also almost four times the SGD$25 (USD$18) special fee that Starhub charged its subscribers for viewing the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals matches in Germany.[97]
Riza Maulana / XI IPA 6/ 30
No comments:
Post a Comment