WELL DONE SOUTH AFRICA

When South Africa in April 2004, won the right to host the FIFA World cup; the whole continent was delirious with joy considering that it is the first time the tournament will be coming to Africa. With how they narrowly lost hosting the event in 2006 to Germany, nobody questioned their eligibility of being crowned hosts in 2010.
The western media was awash with factors that would have militated against South Africa from being a worthy host. Attention was drawn to the high level of insecurity in the country and also that the nation might not be ready in time to host the world. Thereafter calls were made to FIFA to have a plan B in case South Africa couldn’t meet up with the demands of hosting the world cup. Even Germany were purported to have been on stand by. But FIFA stuck to their guns and supported South Africa all the way making sure that every thing was in place.
South Africa did not only face criticism outside the country but also within the nation. With some questioning the wisdom in investing 33billion rand (4.28billion dollars) just for hosting the world cup while such funds can be diverted into building houses for the masses, closing the gap between the rich and the poor, providing jobs etc. they saw it as a waste of resources but south Africa president Jacob Zuma in order to quell the fears, said the world cup was financially rewarding.
Certainly South Africa will definitely not feel the impact of the world cup until years after. The world cup has greatly enhanced its perception outside its shores and also tremendously improved their economy. Many infrastructures have been put in place; they now have vastly improved airports and good road network. The improvements are irreversible. They did very well in organising the tournament, that they set a very tough precedent for any African nation that might have the intention of emulating them.
Only two African nations can think of hosting the world cup based on their past experience and successful hosting of past FIFA youth championships. These two nations are Egypt and Nigeria. Starting with Egypt, they successfully hosted the FIFA u-20 world cup in 2009 but the u-20 championship is entirely a different ball game from the world cup. Besides the weather factor is a major issue. In June -July that the tournament is staged by FIFA is winter in North Africa. This will no doubt be inimical to staging a hitch free tournament in that zone.
NIGERIA
This is a country with great potentials of hosting the event, but issues of corruption; underdevelopment is a clog in the wheels of the nation. They successfully hosted the U-20 world cup in 1999 and U-17 in 2009 but not without little problems that could have been avoided. Majority of the problems witnessed in these two nations are lack of housing, good portable water, urban transport with good transport links, telecommunications etc.
South Africa did a very good job as hosts despite initial fears to the contrary. They were not perturbed even when critics predicted that fans would be deterred by high travel costs and high crime rate in the country. At least they can now look back with nostalgia and be proud of themselves for staging one of the most successful world cup tournaments in history.
The international Olympic committee president Jacques Rogge even praised them for successfully hosting the world cup. No wonder they have already tabled their bid to host the 2020 Olympics. Who can bet against them? For now other African countries can only applaud and support South Africa all the way because it seems the only African country that can compete against them in staging world events is South Africa themselves.