the basic failure of the 2010 World Cup

[fpb]

I don't suppose anyone is seriously willing to argue that giving South Africa the opportunity to organize a World Cup was not a political decision - much like giving it to the United States back in 1994 or to Japan and South Korea in 2002. You may call it a piece of Political Correctness; you may, if you are more benevolent - and I am, in this

Comments

[notebuyer]

I think your analysis is right on. Let's hope the television revenue is enough to make it break even, though I really doubt it.

[filialucis]

"...it is the restaurant at the end of the universe. Almost literally. It is harder and more expensive to get there than almost anywhere in the world."

And then there are the murder statistics. One of the first stories about the world cup that made headlines in my part of the world was the murder of Peter Burgstaller, a former Austrian soccer player who was in ZA during the draw for the first round and was found shot dead, apparently pretty much for his cell phone and the cash in his pockets, on a golf course apparently protected by an electric fence. It was extensively reported in these parts (not without pointing out that it's the kind of thing that doesn't even make headlines in ZA itself any more because it's so commonplace), and I find it hard to imagine that this would fail help to deter people from going there for a soccer match -- even if getting there weren't as expensive as you point out.

[fpb]

Yes, but as I pointed out, Egypt would be worse. The opportunity for certain groups to kill visiting westerners in bunches would be too great to be resisted. Let's face it: when it comes to public order, no African country is a desirable object. My countrymen swarm to the beaches of Kenya, without realizing that the crime figures in its great cities are not much better than ZA's.

In many ways, this championship represents the reductio ad absurdum of Sepp Blatter's FIFA leadership. Staged in an inappropriate country, financially unsuccessful, and riddled with unacceptable refereeing decisions - if this does not lead to his ejection, nothing will. And if soccer doesn't get rid of Sepp Blatter, the game is in trouble.