from Reuters Soccer Blog:

Back on Robben Island — the men who changed the game

The year 1964 was a highly significant one in the fight against Apartheid: Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island and FIFA suspended South Africa from football because of the legalised racist policies of its Government.

If anyone had suggested then that one day FIFA's Executive Committee would meet on the outcrop off the coast of Cape Town on the eve of the draw for South Africa's World Cup, they would have been derided as a fantasist.

But that is exactly what happened on Thursday. FIFA president Sepp Blatter and the 24 most important men in world soccer, plus around 250 members of the media and other helpers, spent a day on the island where Mandela, and current South African President Jacob Zuma were incarcerated for years of their lives.

Flashlights or a blackout-free soccer bonanza?

South Africa’s power utility Eskom has assured the world it will keep the lights on during the FIFA World Cup next year.

But many wonder if they can trust the assurances after the country’s national grid came to a near standstill last year, forcing mines and smelters to shut and costing the biggest economy in Africa billions of dollars.

Eskom’s new power investments are not supposed to kick in until well after the cup next year, and occasional power cuts still make the headlines in the country’s media as the system continues to be tight, despite some temporary relief given the economic slowdown.

According to FIFA regulations, all stadiums will be powered using generators, but the utility still plans to secure a buffer of 2,000 MW – enough to power a city – for the duration of the event.

Money will talk louder than any vuvuzela

The debate around the vuvuzela was always going to generate big noise but for some South African commentators it has become almost a neo-colonial conflict.

The noisy trumpet, which dominates the sound waves around the stadiums during the Confederations Cup, has got a lot of people covering their ears.

Complaints from TV viewers across Europe have been vociferous enough for the future of the plastic pest to become the major item on the agenda at the series of press conferences FIFA president Sepp Blatter has held during the tournament in South Africa.

Blatter has said it will stay — he wants to celebrate local custom and is inviting the rest of the world to do so too.

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

Confederations Cup shapes up well…except for the weather

For all their scepticism about South Africa’s potential to host the World Cup, the build-up to the test event, the Confederations Cup, has so far gone without any major hitches.

It is a dream scenario for the home nation and FIFA, still trying to temper the doubters and persuade the world all will be ready by 2010, has added to the chorus of congratulations.

Sepp Blatter devoted a good deal of his traditional pre-tournament news conference on Friday to pouring scorn on the doubters.

Africans wary of World Cup ticket prices

The first phase of ticket sales for the 2010 World Cup closed on Tuesday night with 1.6 million applications received.

This is more than two applications per available ticket although there is likely to be much more demand for the matches during the exciting knockout phase of the tournament than for the opening two weeks of group play.

Of those 1.6 million, about 70 percent are overseas applicants, meaning 500,000 applications were received from residents of host nation South Africa and elsewhere on the African continent.

This contrasts starkly with six million applications received at the same stage of the sale phase ahead of the 2006 finals in Germany.

The dream just got harder

Two new proposed sets of new footballing legislation would make it even more difficult for Africa’s top soccer talent to achieve their dream of playing in Europe.

The proposed 6+5 regulation that FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been vigorously touting will mean less chance for African players to find lucrative employment with clubs in Europe, where the vastly better pay makes it a destination of choice for so many footballers from this continent. Blatter wants to ensure more local players feature in domestic football, which over the years in Europe has become blurred by liberal EU labour laws and the mass migration of footballing talent in all directions. It is 10 years ago, for example, since a club in the English Premier League last fielded an all-English side and, although as a product the premier league has become a world brand because of its world starts, there is a move now to restrict the number of foreigners playing in England and elsewhere.

UEFA president Michel Platini has received backing for his plan to scrap international transfer for players aged under 18, which will mean African talent will have to wait until past their 18th birthday before being able to head off to Europe.

While Platini’s plan is designed to prevent young players from around Europe being exploited by unscrupulous agents, it will also stymie the path of the continent’s best young talent.

Can Bafana live up to World Cup host team billing?

There were the predictable platitudes from Sepp Blatter in South Africa this week, expressing satisfaction with the pace of construction of the country’s top stadia ahead of its hosting if the 2010 World Cup finals.

But there was little Swiss diplomacy on display from the FIFA president when dealing with the issue of the country’s national team, Bafana Bafana, whose rapid decline over the last years is now a major source of concern.

For FIFA, the World Cup has become a massive revenue-generating property. Over 80 percent of their considerable income is from sponsors of the tournament. The event has become the world’ biggest party or, as Blatter insisted on his four-day trip to Johannesburg and Cape Town, “the only event that transcends people and politics”. 

Luckily, recent World Cup hosts have produced competitive teams, even when the event went to Asia for the first time in 2002. Then South Korea got to the semifinals and, in the process, created one of the largest street parties ever seen.