Vuvuzela South Africa

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Manchester City is now my favorite team in the whole wide world after City manager Mark Hughes and his England midfield star, Gareth Barry, have come out in support of South African soccer fans blowing their vuvuzelas.

Well I still think they spent too much money and I don’t quite know if I buy that whole story about an investment in the future. My grandfather always said one should never invest in anything that eats or needs to be painted!

Endorsement of the Vuvuzela

Steven Ireland

But the ringing endorsement of the Vuvuzela was nice, even if it came hot on the heels of City’s  1-0 defeat of Kaizer Chief last night , when captain Stevie Ireland sent the Blues into Saturday’s Vodacom Challenge Final.

Hughes did not think the vuvuzela interfered at all with the game, in fact he felt that it added to the passion in both venues they had played.

According to IOL the City boss said:

“The spirit here in the crowd has been brilliant and the local fans are really a tremendous part of the South African game.”

Mark Hughes continued:

“I enjoyed the experience of hearing the vuvuzelas we heard about in the Confederations Cup, and as far as I am concerned they add to the excitement of the crowd.”

Gareth Barry, who was signed by Hughes from Aston Villa for about R225-million recently, agreed with his manager.

“What I and the other players really enjoyed was the noise and passion created by the fans.

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ESPN has released its first video to begin its promotion of the 2010 World Cup which it’ll be broadcasting in the United States.

The video is targeted at the average American mainstream sports fan and explains how global the game is and destroys some of the typical criticisms about soccer such as the low scoring games, why the United States isn’t a soccer giant power, and other stereotypes.

Investment in Fiber for 2010

ESPN has been making a massive investment in Fiber for the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup for its on site coverage of the games. The global sports giant is expanding its private fiber-optic network to create the same level of connectivity with Johannesburg, South Africa, that it enjoys between its multiple U.S. studios.

According to Multichannel News, the programmer has already installed two-way fiber links between its Bristol, Conn., home base and its new L.A. Live facility in Los Angeles, as well as with ABC studios in New York and ESPNU/ESPN Regional TV in Charlotte, N.C. In 2010, it will use fiber to support two real-time video links from Johannesburg, one running to New York and the other to Los Angeles.

On Site World Cup Programming Studio

It is the first time ESPN will produce the entirety of its World Cup studio programming on-site. This will include Sports Center segments, nightly World Cup Live updates, and pre-, halftime and post-match shows, with additional studio programming and World Cup-branded segments.

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Durban and Cape Town are two of the Host Cities preparing themselves for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.

I have just read two articles in bizcommunity.com about the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. Both interesting and important, but they made me smile because the stories so reflect the general attitudes of the two cities involved -  Cape Town and Durban.

Cape Town Tourism Survey

Well, the Cape Town story is about the success of the FIFA Confederations Cup. Cape Town Tourism commissioned a survey. According to Dr Nikolaus Eberl, of the 323 international visitors canvassed, only one said he would not recommend South Africa as a holiday destination. 3.68% of respondents answered ‘maybe’, resulting into an aggregate brand advocacy score of 96% for destination SA.

In terms of destination branding, this is the highest brand advocacy score achieved by a FIFA World Cup host yet, beating the benchmark set by Germany in 2006 by almost eight percentage points, he says.

Now Durban, on the other hand has gone a bit lower on Maslow’s pyramid and put safety and security centre stage with less than a year to go before kick-off to the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.

Safety and Security in Durban for 2010 World Cup

In Durban, a joint initiative has been established to boost safety and security during the football tournament. Safety and security planning is being co-ordinated between the South African Police Force, Durban Metro Police, Durban Beach Law Enforcement and independent security companies with deployment as a joint initiative.

Julie-May Ellingson, head of Durban’s Strategic Projects Unit and 2010 Programme, says, “Durban already has an enviable record for hosting large international events including the Cricket and Rugby World Cups, IPL 20/20 cricket, the FIFA preliminary draw, A1 motorsport and the Comrades Marathon and will be calling on that experience to ensure the same level of safety and security prevails during next year’s tournament.”

Ellingson says, “a joint operations centre will mobilize and reallocate resources and the overall safety and security planning will be collated by the Provincial Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (JOINTS). This structure will report directly to a national structure to allow for consistent and unified safety across South Africa.”

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One of the exciting moments in the 2010 World Cup run- up has come – the call for volunteers! These are the invisible people who contribute so much to the spirit of  a huge  organization of this kind.

2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa (OC)  has started the drive to recruit 15 000 volunteers for next year’s showpiece tournament.

With 32 teams participating, an expected influx of 450 000 visitors and 64 matches across nine host cities in ten stadiums, the volunteers will play a vital role in assisting the OC to deliver a successful 2010 FIFA World Cup™.

Well  this is the blurb from their Fifa website and I’m not looking forward to see how they deal with the influx.

For the FIFA Confederations Cup alone – which was open to only South African residents – nearly 40 000 people applied for the 4 000 which shows you a few things:

• There is a massive unemployment problem in South Africa
• South Africans aren’t afraid to work
• South Africans are sport mad

Find our more about becoming a Volunteer for the  2010 FIFA  World Cup

Apply Now to become a Volunteer at the 2010 World Cup.

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