I have a brother ( David ) living in the UK who is a football fan. He is a season ticket holder for a small English club called Chelsea FC, you may of heard of this very average team ? Now, David is utterly besotted with this lot and the game of football. He is unable to leave England ( something to do with a restraining order or something, very GBHish )so will be following the path of the English team as they march towards the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup on his stolen TV.
Now, along with hundreds of thousands of visiting fans flowing into South Africa this week are 31 national teams, the entire FIFA Family, sponsors, a massive media contingent and us, local South Africans. I want to talk about the US contingent. Way back when Sepp B showed his card with our name on it as the 2010 Host Country, we were worried. Worried about being able to do this thing. This was compounded by many miffed countries casting aspersions as to the ability of an Africa country ( I mean come on, they are a breed of help outs only, how can they come up with first world goods, service and all needed to host this event ? ) to rise to the occasion.
As a people we doubted ourselves, gulp, maybe these countries are right, what chance do we have to pull this off ? Look at our roads, our public transport, don't even go as far as considering our ability to run the SWC from a logistical perspective for that is too ghastly to contimplate. We as a collective talked ourselves into a position of acceptance that we were incapable. The media said this, the people felt it and it almost became true. So what happened between then ( a short four years ago ) and today Sunday the sixth of June, less than one week before the first round kicks off ?
A small band of souls got together behind very closed doors. No one knew about this event as no one would have believed it. These eight good people debated the reality, magnitude and practicality of this African country being successful in this task. Their individual place within Africa spanned social, commerce, cultural and political. They sat alone, without any external influence ( at their request ) for almost two days. Debate was robust ( the politician ), expansive ( the economist ), oscilating ( the socialist )and for the quiet voice of one gentleman, insightful, real, filled with belief and knowledge of African people.
These eight eventually came to a decision and left their " prision ". Each charged with a specific responsibility to influence their respective arena of responsibility. Each in the knowledge that as a collective, Africans are very good at what they do, quite cabable of providing world leading technology and as such very able to provide FIFA with their SWC here in South Africa. We as a people were treated with an insight as to our abilities every day as our stadia grew. We saw moves to provide public transport within the metroplitan areas of the host cities, we heard Sepp B talk of how he believed in us. Our LOC raised our awareness in how we were doing, how we were progressing towards Friday the eleventh of June 2010.
The tide of " we cannot " moved to " maybe we can Eh ? ". As more and more concrete evidence appeared, the tide of believe rose to a full blown wave of self belief. As the months passed and ran into the last for years, the group of eight met on a number of occassions and will meet for the last time today. Their task is done, they will sit for one last time with wide smiles, hugs of comaraderie firm in the knowledge that South Africa will present to the entire world the very best FIFA SWC that Africa can. To all who come to witness this " You are very Welcome ", for us as hosts, we are grateful for the opportumity to share our energy with you. Energy inherent in our souls, deeper than the foundation of our stadia, stronger than the forces of non believers and as able as ever to share our home with each and every one of you.
You are very Welcome.....Thank you for being here.
Ciao
Colin J. FRYER.
