June 11, Friday is definitely a momentous date in all soccer fans calenders especially Africaans as being the date when Africa has the chance to host the famous FIFA World Cup. The Americas and Europe have had the priveledge of hosting the FIFA World Cup for the past 801 years. How does the venue for the FIFA World Cup get chosen? According to the revised selection policy, as long as the country’s continental confederaton hasn’t hosted the Cup in the past two years, the country would become eligable, this would make any African country a strong candidate. South Africa had a narrow loss against Germany in the 2006 bidding with 12 votes to 11 as the final tally. All countries that bid for the 2010 World Cup were African including South Africa, Morocco and Egypt. South Africa beat Morocco by 4 votes leading to this memorable event.Those are the ‘technical’ reasons why this years World Cup is being held in South Africa but is the country itself capable of holding such an event? If you’d ask me, I’d say they surely are, here are my reasons:
* They’ve got a great team- that simple fact makes them deserving to have the great privilege of hosting the cup.If you’d ask me, having a World Cup in a country whose team isn’t even above average would be a disgrace. Look back at the countries that held the Cup-1950 (Brazil), 1978 (Argentina), and 1990 (Italy), some of the best teams in the world. Adding South Africa to the list would make sense.
* Perfect stadiums- South Africa’s preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup included the construction of four new stadiums. Their designs include : a detractable glass roof, beautiful lighting, zebra like seats, and the South African flag. Who could want more?
* Great Weather- wildlife aside, South Africa is renowned for it’s weather. The World Football Tournament will be held during South Africa’s winter season. South Africa’s winter temperature at midday is warmer than most countries daily summer temperature so no need to worry that your favorite players will get frozen. Lower temperatures have been proved to be better for athlete’s bodies so the average expected temperature of 20 degrees Celsius at 12pm noon will be great. With good weather, we can expect better performance..
* The continent alone- soccer is no doubt in every African’s heart and Africa is known to be the place where civilization begun. So what better place to have countries from the four corners of the earth meet? More so since South Africa has used soccer as a means of unity and force against apartheid in the Mandela era. Having Soweto be the venue for the finals will add meaning and make the even even more memorable for the reason that Soweto has been the heart of South African soccer.
The whole world should be happy that an event of this magnitude is being held in Africa for the first time and no matter how many issues regarding safety have popped up in the past four years, I think the 2010 FIFA World Cup deserve to be held in South Africa.
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