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Feature
Football
According to a range of reports, the recent FIFA World Cup in South Africa was
mired in corruption from its very beginning.
Two documents that detail the causes and breadth of corruption have recently
been published. One, “Player and Referee Conflicting Interests and the 2010
FIFA World Cup”, published by the Institute for Security Studies, concentrates
on corruption in the tendering policies for the World Cup’s infrastructure.
A second report entitled “Killing Soccer in Africa” evaluates the causes
for the respective failures of most of the African teams that featured in the
competition. The report blames vested interests, financial corruption and gross
incompetence for Africa’s footballing woes.
In the first report, contributing author Andrew Jennings slams FIFA’s financial
systems.
He said of FIFA: “The unaccountable structure they’ve installed is honed to
deliver the game to the needs of global capitalism – with no checks or restraints.
Just cheques.”
The report claims that FIFA sold the rights for Soccer City to a company called
National Stadium South Africa (NSSA), which would be subsequently paid
10% of all match revenue throughout the World Cup. He is dubious as to how
much money went back into the city of Johannesburg.
Thereport further claims that money that did go back into the hands of South
Africans came through the unethical pricing policies of some goods and
services industries.
The report also claims that an investigation by Rob Rose “confirmed that
tourists will have to pay 1000 percent more than they would normally pay for
accommodation in certain cases”.
Moreover, in the report “Killing Soccer in Africa” it states that World Cup profits
would be divided between the Local Organising Committee, the SAFA officials
and FIFA. Of the total profit, FIFA bagged 85%. “The biggest winner was
definitely the International Football Association (FIFA). It made US $3.2 billion
from the event”.
The poor review of the World Cup goes even further. The report claims that
even murder was a part of the shameful story of World Cup 2010. According
to the report, a whistleblower was murdered “in connection with tenders for
Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga.”
The African Eye News service also reported “that schools were destroyed
and people moved from where they were living in order to make way for the
stadiums.”
It would seem that a lot of concerns must be addressed if the South African
people can have faith in the honesty of its sport administrations.
Top 10
South African-Born England
Cricketers
South Africa has been exporting cricket
stars to its rival nations for some years.
The height of the emigration of South
African-born players was during the
apartheid area, when the international
sports boycott forced players overseas
in the hope of international competition.
Many of these players became England stars
and many still do!
1.
Kevin Pietersen
2.
Andrew Strauss
3.
Tony Greig
4.
Allan Lamb
5.
Basil D’Oliveira
6.
Robin Smith
7.
Matthew Prior
8.
Jonathan Trott
9.
Chris Smith
10.
Ian Greig
Kevin Pietersen
Source: Blnguyen | wikipedia.com
Photo: Matthew Sean Noteboom, 2010
Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga at night.