Sepp Blatter conjured up a lot of bluster about the state of the game, in the wake of the Thierry Henry handball and the match fixing arrests.His call for an extraordinary meeting of the FIFA Executive Committee promised some extraordinary decisions and was followed at the start of the week with the firm hint fundamental change was in the offing.Visions of stricter punishment for divers, more power for referees to deal with the wrestling between opposing strikers and defenders at set pieces and a suggestion of extra officials to deal with the game’s more contentious moments hung deliciously in the air.Blatter made one of his better analyses of the issues he felt were blighting the modern game in a question and answer session at the Soccerex business conference in Johannesburg on Monday, setting up the prospect that Wednesday’s extraordinary Executive Committee meeting would perhaps promise a lot more of the fair play FIFA is so quick to pontificate about.Blatter appeared before the world’s media after the meeting and even then hinted at the juicy changes to come, stating quite clearly in his preamble that the future of the game was at a crossroads.But then, as he explained what had been decided upon by the 24 member committee, it quickly became apparent the meeting was anything but extraordinary.There was no agreement on any fundamental improvements.One referee and two linesmen will stay in place for a while to come; a promised change to the playoff system at the end of the qualifiers will be reviewed by a future committee and Interpol is a new firm friend of FIFA.It is clear Blatter’s knee jerk reaction to the adverse publicity in the wake of the Henry incident and the betting scandal was not appreciated by his more conservative colleagues.It is not often the committee puts a FIFA president so emphatically back in his box, but a lid on Blatter’s exuberances is clearly now in place.Michel Platini and Franz Beckenbauer are against any drastic tinkering to a game they know all too well and the Europeans, and their powerful television partners, think the playoffs are a superbly exciting way of finishing off the qualifying.The game as we know it for the moment remains. Even with the handballs and contentious goal line decisions, it’s still a good product.PHOTO: FIFA president Sepp Blatter is pictured during a media briefing on Robben Island December 3, 2009. The winners of next year’s World Cup final in South Africa will collect $30 million in prize money, FIFA said on Thursday after their Executive Committee meeting in the historic setting of Robben Island. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

(Updates after Parreira appointed)Joel Santana arrived for what he thought was a routine review of his work with his South African Football Association bosses on Monday and within hours was packing his bags for a return to Brazil, ending his tenure as the 15th coach employed by South Africa in the last 17 years.The run of poor results in recent internationals plus last year’s early elimination from the African Nations Cup qualifiers, had left Bafana Bafana in deep crisis, a team without any confidence or direction and running out of time before hosting the 2010 World Cup finals.Santana had done himself few favours, first with his inability to learn passable English even after 18 months in the country and secondly his glib answers to increasingly concerned questions about the progress of the team. His side have looked listless and without direction in recent matches.Santana was the second coach in the country’s Brazilian experiment, following Carlos Alberto Parreira as South Africa turned to the land of the five-time word champions for the expertise to mould their 2010 team.Parreira has now returned to the job. He quit in April 2008 after his wife was found to have cancer. She has since recovered and he had indicated over the last days he would be interested in returning to the job.There was, however, a clamour for a local coach to take over, with popular sentiment believing the experiment with foreign coaches has failed. In the past the deluge of callers to phone-in shows on radio and TV has influenced the decision of SAFA, which makes for a potentially dangerous decision-making.The issue of Santana’s successor was discussed on Friday by the association’s leadership and Parreira will be in charge for the next internationals at home to Japan and Jamaica in mid-November. He will have six months to resurrect the country’s hopes of at least making it past the first round.PHOTO: Carlos Alberto Parreira reacts during a match against Swaziland at Ellis Park in Johannesburg March 13, 2007. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

South Africa coach Joel Santana has been given two more games to show progress with his side or face being fired just six months before the country hosts the 2010 World Cup finals.A growing clamour for the departure of the 60-year-old, who came into the job 18 months ago after Carlos Alberto Parreira was forced to quit because of his wife’s illness, has been given momentum by two lethargic performances in Norway and Iceland.Bafana Bafana lost both games 1-0 and have now been defeated in eight of their last nine matches –- the only positive was a hastily-arranged match against Madagascar last month that could barely be called a proper international but which South Africa won 1-0 to help massage the stark statistics.This year, South Africa have scored 10 goals in 16 internationals and remain toothless upfront.Santana is now facing a cacophony of calls for the return of Benni McCarthy, the country’s most controversial sportsman. Without a proven goalscorer he is in demand again, although Santana refuses to pick what he feels is a disruptive influence on his group.The recent election of South African Football Association president Kirsten Nematandani initially spelt doom for Santana. Nematandani’s campaign manifesto included a promise to get rid of the unpopular Brazilian but since taking office he has tempered his stance.The first step towards his possible dismissal by the year-end is the appointment of a group of three ‘assessors’ who will decide whether Santana is making any progress or not.The trio is made up of two former `Bafana coaches – Jomo Sono and Clive Barker – and Gavin Hunt, who has led SuperSport United to the last two South African Premier League titles.The ‘assessors’ won’t be making any recommendations on Santana’s competency until after the next warm-up games at home to Japan on Nov. 14 and Jamaica three days later.Santana has done himself no favours by trotting out the same old excuses every time the team loses. Among them is a reminder that Germany, too, struggled in their build up to the 2006 World Cup finals which they hosted.“And look how well they then went on to do,” Santana tells reporters.But few believe South Africa have any chance of getting anywhere near the knockout round next June, nevermind the semi-final.PHOTO: South Africa coach Joel Santana reacts at the end of their international friendly soccer match against Serbia at the Super stadium in Pretoria August 12, 2009. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

World Cup organisers had plans to spread the 32 finalists for the 2010 tournament across South Africa, giving every corner of the country a chance to feel a little of the fever close at hand.While the matches are only being played at 10 venues in nine cities, the team bases would have allowed for a wider spread, with the opportunity to watch a training session becoming almost as valuable a commodity as a match ticket for star-starved supporters away from the World Cup mainstream.South Africa has a sparking coastline, lots of resorts of varying standards plus the interior of the country also enjoys a sophisticated tourist infrastructure.There are many options from which teams can choose a base for the 2010 tournament and the major countries, qualified or not, have already been to South Africa to make their selection. Some coastal towns have done extensive marketing to try and attract a major football-playing nation to their location and a chance to share in the World Cup spotlight.But to the horror of the 2010 organisers the vast majority of teams are plumping for a place at altitude, for the distinct advantage they feel it gives them.Most national coaches, who have already been to South Africa on inspection visits, have demanded they stay and train up on high ground in Gauteng, the province that incorporates the greater Johannesburg and Pretoria area, where the air is thinner and the training therefore more effective. It is likely the vast majority of the teams will be cloistered together in a radius of some 150 sq km.Only France, Sweden and Paraguay have elected so far to set up a coastal base, although so far only the latter have secured qualification to the 2010 tournament.France have booked a facility at George on the southern Cape coast after their coach Raymond Domenech personally came to look at several options. Whether he’ll make it to the World Cup next year remains to be seen, even if France do make it through November’s Europe play-offs.Paraguay are heading to the Eastern Cape while the Swedes have booked in at Durban, but must still win several key qualifiers before they can move in!Brazil have booked a spot in Bloemfontein while England will be based at Sun City but the most popular venue is Pretoria. Argentina, Germany, Italy, Mexico and the USA have booked hotels or guest lodges in the capital. Italy are to stay at the same lodge where they spent a unsuccessful Confederations Cup and also use the same school for their training.German coach Joachim Loew also insisted on a base at altitude for his side while Argentina sent their 1986 winning coach Carlos Bilardo, now an advisor to Diego Maradona, to check out facilities. They want the thin air too.Japan and Switzerland have booked in Johannesburg and the Dutch have done a deal with South African premier league club Wits University to use their facilities and, in turn, are building extra pitches and an improved club house for the Johannesburg-based club. They have already also started a training exchange programme and promise to keep it up long past the 2010 tournament.PHOTO: South Africa’s coach Joel Santana and the World Cup 2010 mascot applaud during a friendly soccer match against Germany in Leverkusen September 5, 2009. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender

When the initial estimate of World Cup stadium costs was made by South Africa, it was set at some R2-3 billion.That was at the time of the country’s success in winning the bid ahead of its fellow African competitors in 2004, some six years before the hosting of the 2010 World Cup.For months, officials have been predicting the final bill will come in around R13 billion. It is an staggering increase that has never got anything but a flimsy explanation over the last few years.The economic recession, the price of steel, the volatile South African currency (the Rand) were all cited but never was a detailed explanation offered over the massive escalation.Admittedly the stadium plan at the time of the R2-3 billion price range changed considerably in the subsequent years; two new stadiums were added to the original plans and the showpiece Soccer City venue given a whole new architectural feel.Few in South Africa have ever questioned the additional costs, not even those who have felt a sporting spectacle should never have been allowed to take much needed cash away from sorting out the long-standing legacy of decades of Apartheid.The Treasury seemed consistently happy to be doling out the cash. Up until now though. A probe from the Competition Commission in South Africa is to investigate the allocation of the construction tenders after all the cost escalations.It might seem a little belated given that the last phase of stadium building is now underway and the venues are due to ready in December.A country like South Africa needs the World Cup but there is a limit to how much they can pay out for a month-long party, particularly if it is to the detriment of millions of citizens who still have so little.

The decision by Nigeria to test their under-17 players to eliminate age cheats is the first step in ridding African soccer of a long-standing blight.Nigeria Football Federation president Sani Lulu Abdallah has said this week his organisation will take the unprecedented step of measuring the bone density of players by use of an MRI scan, usually done around the wrist area, to approximate whether they are roughly the right age or not.They will start before Nigeria put an under-17 side together for their hosting of the world championships later this year.It has long been suspected that past sides (and Nigeria have won three World under-17 Championships) have had age cheats but Nigeria is among the first associations to have shown any willingness to try to tackle the issue.There have been past admissions of cheating, almost all of them long after the fact, while some teams have been caught trying to change the date of birth of players, who had been previously registered for other competitions.Similar scans to those proposed by Nigeria have not been implemented because they are not 100 percent accurate. But FIFA’s own findings have attached a 90 percent credibility to the tests…certainly much more credibility than the World Junior Championship will enjoy if age cheats go unchecked.PHOTO: FIFA president Sepp Blatter, keen to root out age cheats, in Seoul Sept. 9, 2007. Blatter visited Seoul to watch the final between Spain and Nigeria at the FIFA U-17 World Cup. REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak

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.FIFA’s television arm, HBS, are more cautious but say privately, at the end of the day what Blatter says goes.The European TV stations, who pay a lot of the money that funds FIFA, Blatter and the World Cup, could have the vuvuzela banned if they bleated enough. But most of the noise, so far, has come from enraged South Africa columnists, who have rounded on the poor Dutch journalist who first sought Blatter’s response to complaints from European television viewers.In Africa, there is a sensitivity to being told what to do from outside and a pride in seeking to create a unique World Cup in 2010. Some of the stuff written though has been a little churlish. See here, here and here for a flavour.At the end the day, it is the big TV money that talks. If the world’s broadcasters feel the cacophony of vuvuzelas detracts from the viewing pleasure of their public, FIFA will be forced to back down and ban the trumpets from the 2010 World Cup stadiums.It won’t have anything to do with any ‘ism, just cold hard cash.PHOTO: A South African soccer fan blows on a traditional “vuvuzela” horn before the start of the Confederations Cup match between New Zealand and Iraq at Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg, June 20, 2009. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

South Africa’s Brazilian coach Joel Santana has broken into English at news conferences on just a handful of occasions.

It’s mostly after rare wins for the national side when the local media are in good humour and Santana seeks to charm them with his piecemeal vocabulary. Few notes are taken amid the mirth.

So it was after Saturday’s win over Poland in Soweto – a rare triumph for Bafana Bafana against European opposition which is a confidence booster for a side in desperate need of a lift.