Has South Africa failed?
Discussion
had ham said:
Over-priced tickets, half full stadiums, no atmosphere in the grounds (or elsewhere for that matter), those stupid f
king plastic horns, utterly woeful logistics, and piss poor football. I can't recall a World Cup with less about it than this...
So, SA - fail or what?
Been saying the same for a while now. Spent a lot of time in SA and was worried as soon as it was announced. king plastic horns, utterly woeful logistics, and piss poor football. I can't recall a World Cup with less about it than this...So, SA - fail or what?
Blib said:
Mpst World Cup tournaments only really get interesting once the games become decisive in themselves.
For example, England's third game is crucial in a way the first two weren't. Once the knockout phase starts, it will pick up.
I hope you're right, because it's been bloody awfull so far!For example, England's third game is crucial in a way the first two weren't. Once the knockout phase starts, it will pick up.
The vuvuzelas kill the atmosphere, they just drown everything out like bees on crack. Drives you nuts.
Ball is st, like a supermarket ball.
Pitches rock hard (this coupled with the ball makes passes bounce miles and through balls just bounce out to touch).
Sick of the way the BBC and ITV automatically assume we must/want to support South Africa just 'cos they suffered under Apartied and its a 3rd world country).
st atmosphere (did I say that?)
England = wk.
Ball is s
t, like a supermarket ball.Pitches rock hard (this coupled with the ball makes passes bounce miles and through balls just bounce out to touch).
Sick of the way the BBC and ITV automatically assume we must/want to support South Africa just 'cos they suffered under Apartied and its a 3rd world country).
s
t atmosphere (did I say that?)England = w
k.I'd say they failed but because of the highest murder rate in the world, massive corruption and 80% living in poverty.
The soccer games are not even part of the equation. Forget buying a ticket, 3/4ths of the people living there don't even have access to a television to watch the games.
I know its politically incorrect to say but the country has gone to hell since the whites were kicked out of power. They went from a second world prospering nation to a st hole racing to the bottom of the barrel. Desmond Tutu said just a few weeks ago he felt safer under Apartheid. 
I wouldn't live there for any price.
The soccer games are not even part of the equation. Forget buying a ticket, 3/4ths of the people living there don't even have access to a television to watch the games.
I know its politically incorrect to say but the country has gone to hell since the whites were kicked out of power. They went from a second world prospering nation to a s
t hole racing to the bottom of the barrel. Desmond Tutu said just a few weeks ago he felt safer under Apartheid. I wouldn't live there for any price.
Joecooool said:
I'd say they failed but because of the highest murder rate in the world, massive corruption and 80% living in poverty.
The soccer games are not even part of the equation. Forget buying a ticket, 3/4ths of the people living there don't even have access to a television to watch the games.
I know its politically incorrect to say but the country has gone to hell since the whites were kicked out of power. They went from a second world prospering nation to a st hole racing to the bottom of the barrel. Desmond Tutu said just a few weeks ago he felt safer under Apartheid.
I wouldn't live there for any price.
Yeah but the media shows pixxors of angelic black school kids smiling (with token white kids to signal inclusivity), and happy black people dancing. The soccer games are not even part of the equation. Forget buying a ticket, 3/4ths of the people living there don't even have access to a television to watch the games.
I know its politically incorrect to say but the country has gone to hell since the whites were kicked out of power. They went from a second world prospering nation to a s
t hole racing to the bottom of the barrel. Desmond Tutu said just a few weeks ago he felt safer under Apartheid. I wouldn't live there for any price.
Also bleats on about rainbow nation crap.I've lived in Joburg for a time, and much prefer Sao Paulo... And that's saying something at times.
I dont think you can blame the football on SA, but I never thought it was going to be a massive success, the main reason being that, as others have rightly said, the tickets have been priced out of the reach of most of the fans.
I hope Brasil does not make the same mistake in four years, but that's unlikey...
I dont think you can blame the football on SA, but I never thought it was going to be a massive success, the main reason being that, as others have rightly said, the tickets have been priced out of the reach of most of the fans.
I hope Brasil does not make the same mistake in four years, but that's unlikey...
How can any sports show like Olympics, World Cup etc be succesful by the success you are demanding of it when it is so commercially based?
The organisers only consider it successful if people watch it (which unfortunately we do) but you're trying to pin some moral values on it as if it's a charity.
The organisers only consider it successful if people watch it (which unfortunately we do) but you're trying to pin some moral values on it as if it's a charity.
harry010 said:
I've lived in Joburg for a time, and much prefer Sao Paulo... And that's saying something at times.
I dont think you can blame the football on SA, but I never thought it was going to be a massive success, the main reason being that, as others have rightly said, the tickets have been priced out of the reach of most of the fans.
I hope Brasil does not make the same mistake in four years, but that's unlikey...
Joburg is so fI dont think you can blame the football on SA, but I never thought it was going to be a massive success, the main reason being that, as others have rightly said, the tickets have been priced out of the reach of most of the fans.
I hope Brasil does not make the same mistake in four years, but that's unlikey...
king ste. You can't walk anywhere, you are too scared to do anything, there is nothing of any redeeming quality there etc etc. Spent sometime there and was glad to leave.The only good thing was that the motorways were fun at night when people would just drive like maniacs.
Shay HTFC said:
harry010 said:
I've lived in Joburg for a time, and much prefer Sao Paulo... And that's saying something at times.
I dont think you can blame the football on SA, but I never thought it
was going to be a massive success, the main reason being that, as others have rightly said, the tickets have
been priced out of the reach of most of the fans.
I hope Brasil does not make the same mistake in four years, but that's unlikey...
Joburg is so fI dont think you can blame the football on SA, but I never thought it
was going to be a massive success, the main reason being that, as others have rightly said, the tickets have
been priced out of the reach of most of the fans.
I hope Brasil does not make the same mistake in four years, but that's unlikey...
king ste. You can't walk anywhere, you are too scared to do anything, there is nothing of any redeeming quality there etc etc. Spent sometime there and was glad to leave.The only good thing was that the motorways were fun at night when people would just drive like
maniacs.
You are right about Jozi being a cack place to live... It has no features at all... Apart from the view from the pool at the Westcliff.
Saying that though, in SP I also have to have armoured cars etc, which rather dents the point of an M3, but with everything here, it's a thousand times better than Jozi.
had ham said:
Over-priced tickets, half full stadiums, no atmosphere in the grounds (or elsewhere for that matter), those stupid fking plastic horns, utterly woeful logistics, and piss poor football. I can't recall a World Cup with less about it than this...
So, SA - fail or what?
Probably less of a fail than 2012 is going to be.king plastic horns, utterly woeful logistics, and piss poor football. I can't recall a World Cup with less about it than this...So, SA - fail or what?
I think that unless you get riots and a whole mess-load of people being killed SA isn't going to be judged a failure. Sure the stadiums seem to be shockingly empty and I imagine that the atmosphere is terrible but those aren't things I care about. I also think that SA just pretends to like soccer. How could you have fans leaving world cup games early? Who in their right mind leaves a world cup game early? These are normal games! Not blowouts! Insane.... Say what you want about Brazil but every game is going to be a party and the whole country is going to have only one thought on its mind.... That being the glory of soccer.
What I simply cannot understand is how they can allow such substandard refs to be utilized and why on earth they decided to screw around with the ball! Who changes the ball right before the most important tournament in the world? I also agree that the vuvuzelas are terrible and I hope they are banned in the future.
What I simply cannot understand is how they can allow such substandard refs to be utilized and why on earth they decided to screw around with the ball! Who changes the ball right before the most important tournament in the world? I also agree that the vuvuzelas are terrible and I hope they are banned in the future.
Nb. This is not a post defending the vuvuzelas (VVA from now on in my post). This is just something i heard the other day at the cricket.
Having a beer with one of the OH's work colleagues, an SA guy, he said the chap behind the plastic VVAs has been heralded as some kind of business hero in the country. He was poor and destitute, got a small loan and bought an injection moulding machine and set himself up. He did a bit of prototyping and then got the VVA sorted. Bob's your uncle, everyone starts buying them and he's made a relative fortune.
How much truth there is in that I don't know, it was one chap's word, but it would make sense.
Hence there are a symbol of successful business skill
Having a beer with one of the OH's work colleagues, an SA guy, he said the chap behind the plastic VVAs has been heralded as some kind of business hero in the country. He was poor and destitute, got a small loan and bought an injection moulding machine and set himself up. He did a bit of prototyping and then got the VVA sorted. Bob's your uncle, everyone starts buying them and he's made a relative fortune.
How much truth there is in that I don't know, it was one chap's word, but it would make sense.
Hence there are a symbol of successful business skill
Tadite said:
I think that unless you get riots and a whole mess-load of people being killed SA isn't going to be judged a failure. Sure the stadiums seem to be shockingly empty and I imagine that the atmosphere is terrible but those aren't things I care about. I also think that SA just pretends to like soccer. How could you have fans leaving world cup games early? Who in their right mind leaves a world cup game early? These are normal games! Not blowouts! Insane.... Say what you want about Brazil but every game is going to be a party and the whole country is going to have only one thought on its mind.... That being the glory of soccer.
What I simply cannot understand is how they can allow such substandard refs to be utilized and why on earth they decided to screw around with the ball! Who changes the ball right before the most important tournament in the world? I also agree that the vuvuzelas are terrible and I hope they are banned in the future.
I am pretty sure they use a new ball in every WC, certainly the last 3 that I have seen have had a ball specifically made for the WCWhat I simply cannot understand is how they can allow such substandard refs to be utilized and why on earth they decided to screw around with the ball! Who changes the ball right before the most important tournament in the world? I also agree that the vuvuzelas are terrible and I hope they are banned in the future.
its just that this time the ball has made such technological leaps it is significantly different from many normal balls
http://www.soccerballworld.com/HistoryWCBalls.htm
The way I see it, it's a huge missed opportunity and little more than window dressing.
It could have done a hell of a lot for the area, brought a hell of a lot of foreign cash into the locals economies (by genuine means!). The tourism side of things alone should have been a massive boost, but already there's a lot of shouting that it hasn't been. Local trade where the matches are should have boomed, but they're banned from trading within 12 hours of a match. Then there's all the rumours about FIFA's other stupid restrictions on stuff like advertising within a certain range of the ground (several kilometres IIRC).
It just highlights how far removed it is from the very people it should enrich, and how it's far more geared to corporate pockets. Look at the stink those lovely orange clad ladies being there kicked up.
It's not like we didn't already know it was little more than a marketing exercise, but even those normally have some benefit to the people when they're done on this scale. So yeah, in the grand scheme of things I'll say it's failed before it even got started.
For the TV viewers back in blighty, well there's been little worth watching, I think everyone who's even remotely interested is a bit surprised at quite how bad England have been, and those stupid annoying vuvuzelas making it an absolute nightmare, killing the atmosphere. The cheesy 'Rainbow nation' stuff was fully expected.
I've also got a nagging feeling that the infrastructure left to the country once world cup has been and gone, will probably not be of any great benefit to anyone. Still, I hope I'm wrong on that much.
The world has a far worse view of South Africa than it perhaps deserves, there's still a lot that's good about it, but there's no doubt to my mind that it's definitely a far worse place than it was a few years ago.
In terms of the football played, well I'm not a massive fan of footy, but I seem to remember the group stages of WC's are always a bit dull. Hopefully it'll pick up and generate some excitement for those that are bothered once it gets to the last 16.
It could have done a hell of a lot for the area, brought a hell of a lot of foreign cash into the locals economies (by genuine means!). The tourism side of things alone should have been a massive boost, but already there's a lot of shouting that it hasn't been. Local trade where the matches are should have boomed, but they're banned from trading within 12 hours of a match. Then there's all the rumours about FIFA's other stupid restrictions on stuff like advertising within a certain range of the ground (several kilometres IIRC).
It just highlights how far removed it is from the very people it should enrich, and how it's far more geared to corporate pockets. Look at the stink those lovely orange clad ladies being there kicked up.
It's not like we didn't already know it was little more than a marketing exercise, but even those normally have some benefit to the people when they're done on this scale. So yeah, in the grand scheme of things I'll say it's failed before it even got started.
For the TV viewers back in blighty, well there's been little worth watching, I think everyone who's even remotely interested is a bit surprised at quite how bad England have been, and those stupid annoying vuvuzelas making it an absolute nightmare, killing the atmosphere. The cheesy 'Rainbow nation' stuff was fully expected.
I've also got a nagging feeling that the infrastructure left to the country once world cup has been and gone, will probably not be of any great benefit to anyone. Still, I hope I'm wrong on that much.
The world has a far worse view of South Africa than it perhaps deserves, there's still a lot that's good about it, but there's no doubt to my mind that it's definitely a far worse place than it was a few years ago.
In terms of the football played, well I'm not a massive fan of footy, but I seem to remember the group stages of WC's are always a bit dull. Hopefully it'll pick up and generate some excitement for those that are bothered once it gets to the last 16.
Edited by Stu R on Sunday 20th June 00:58
Tadite said:
That being the glory of soccer.
Your post wasn't bad up until that point ... Tadite said:
What I simply cannot understand is how they can allow such substandard refs to be utilized ...
Axctually, apart from the ref in the Germany match where they lost, I would say the standard has been very good. Okay they ought to play on of course when these foreigners just fall over when gently leaned on but footballl's been going that way for years.The reffing has been one of the better bits of the tournament.
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