South Africa 2010 - It's All Going To Go Wrong...Or Maybe Not

There's always something faintly Xenophobic whenever a major sporting event is held outside of your own country, don't you think?

It doesn't matter if you're English, German, American, French or wherever you are from, you will read reports in the newspapers about how everything in that other, somehow alien, country is behind schedule. You'll read about corruption, crime, poor quality of services, etc. etc.

We read about it before Greece hosted Euro 2004, before Mexico in the 1986 World Cup Finals, about Ukraine and Poland for Euro 2012. And frankly, it's all nonsense.

So reading about 'problems' that South Africa is facing before hosting 2010 World Cup Finals should be taken with a very large pinch of salt.

The article I've linked to above mentions "The South African bid was once dogged by stadium delays, labour unrest, bureaucratic and political disputes and an obsession in the local media that the sport's governing body FIFA had a "plan B" to move it elsewhere."

It talks of crime, murder and fear...focusing in on 'facts' like the high murder rate in South Africa.

Isn't it about time that people grew up. This is a big undertaking. It's run at a national level. There are going to be delays, bureaucracy, political disputes and all. These will be true of any country in which the finals are held.

But, in the end, it's meaningless as South Africa will put on an impressive World Cup Football tournament. There'll be faintly patronising editorials in the British press about how well they've done, of course, but much of the rest of the world won't be surprised.