Oh Africa!: Thoughts On The FIFA World Cup

It is often accepted that absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Therefore, when a particular event is absent for four long years, the comeback is inevitably built up and rightfully hyped to an almost deafening crescendo.

If you listen carefully, you can hear it and if you shut your eyes you can feel it.

Make no mistake about it; the greatest singular sporting event in the world is not the one that occurs annually on a gloomy wintry day in February. Neither is it the one that happens mid-year on meticulously prepared inch-perfect grass.

For a refreshing change, the 11th of June will turn the world’s focus positively towards Africa and in doing so might succeed in shifting the global football paradigm away from Europe in an insignificant way. As the 2002 edition proved, South Korea and Japan set new standards for hosting just as Beijing did with the Summer Games in 2008.

Put simply, when the spotlight turns towards you, it’s best to be prepared because you will be shining whether you like it or not.

The changes will be pervasive.

In less than three weeks our lexicon will expand.

We’ll talk Zakumi and Jabulani – the former being the green-haired anthropomorphized leopard mascot with the clichéd motto that “Zakumi’s game is fair play”, and the latter being Adidas’s eleventh World Cup match ball with (no surprise here!) new revolutionary technology.

Jabulani,(which means “bringing joy to everyone” in Zulu), will live up to its name just like Teamgeist, Fevernova and the Tricolore while Zakumi’s motto will hopefully hold true if one particularly talented bald Frenchman learns to keep his hands in his pockets.

The fans will arrive slowly and steadily, not for one moment letting it seem as if there is actually any sense of calm about the event.

Tournament organizers will breathe faster, voices will be raised and panic will set in.

And all the controversies that South Africa has had to endure ever since it won the bid over six years ago will come to the fore under the intense and often unbearable spotlight of the global media.

Once again, its crime rate, transportation problems and attitude towards evicting people will be questioned. Its stadiums may or may not look ready enough and perhaps the construction workers will make new demands.

And yet the country will continue to endure.

Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and six other cities will light up magically, their streets littered with the contagious passion of the average football fan and their airports abuzz with the imminent arrival of the most talented footballers in the world, each playing not for some fancy club or a gazillion dollars but for free – for their country!

There will be no Ronaldinho or Pato.

No Benzema or Del Piero either.

There are many others who should have made it but did not. Fortunately enough, for every missing star, there are five other bigger and brighter ones ready to stake their claim and cement their legacy at the pinnacle of the world’s only truly global game.

Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney et al will shoulder the burden of a nation and its crazed football fans. Yet, there is every possibility that none of them will succeed.

Reaching the semi-finals or finals is never enough. The infrequency and unpredictability of the FIFA World Cup ensures that for all the perennial contenders as well as pretenders, the only ‘W’ that matters is the one that will take place on the 11th of July.

That will be the day at the FNB Stadium (Soccer City) in Johannesburg when Jabulani changes to Jo’bulani and 95,000 people will become live witnesses to the polarizing climax of a month’s long saga of sleepless nights and heart-in-mouth moments.

And due to the inevitable nature of sport, there will be a winner and a loser.

The former will raise Silvio Gazzaniga’s golden FIFA World Cup trophy as high as possible with confetti raining down and fireworks exploding as far as the eye can see. The loser will keep his head low and perhaps accept the consolation medal with as much graciousness as the occasion allows.

And when the euphoria dies down and the excitement abates, the clock will start ticking in Brazil. If football ever had a home, it would be in the favelas of Rio where the greatest of the greats continue to find and retain their unfathomable love, passion and skill for the game.

There will be issues, controversies and numerous inconceivable reasons why Brazil will not be ready in time, but after four more years everything will return to normal.

The greatest sporting show in the world will present itself to the world and continue to endure.

Just like it always has.