Bafana Bafana World Cup

By: anthony sylvestre

Montevideo is a sprawling port city of over one million people situated on the south coast of Uruguay along the Atlantic Ocean. According to Mercer Human Resource Consulting, in 2007, it provided the highest quality of life in Latin America. But Montevideo is celebrated internationally not only for its opulence. It is in fact the birth place of FIFA World Cup football.

An international football powerhouse at the time, Uruguay hosted and won the first FIFA World Cup which took place in Montevideo in July, 1930. But the road to Uruguay’s hosting the first FIFA World Cup started eight years earlier.

In 1924 at the Olympic Football Tournament in Montevideo, Uruguay defeated Switzerland to emerge as the Champion. Four years later, at the Olympic Football Tournament in Amsterdam, Uruguay defeated its South American rival and next door neighbor, Argentina, to repeat as Olympic Football Champs. But FIFA, which in 1914 had assumed responsibility for the organization of the Olympic Football Tournament,    wanted its own tournament of Football World Champion. Its President Jules Rimet was relentless in bringing this dream to a reality. When the FIFA Congress decided on an official FIFA World Championship in May, 1928, the World Cup, as they say, was born. And Uruguay, being the two time Olympic Champions was selected host country.

That first World Cup in Montevideo did not see the participation of as many countries as in recent years; in fact only 13 nations participated in that first World Cup- seven South American, four European and two North American nations. The finals of that World Cup saw a repeat of the 1928 Football Olympics with Uruguay and Argentina clashing and Uruguay emerging as the first World Cup Champs.

Fast forward to the year 2010.

This year, the global phenomenon that is the World Cup is being staged in South Africa- the first time in the Cup’s history that an African nation is hosting it. Thirty two nations in the month of June in South Africa will meet on a football pitch and determine world dominance.

Teams don’t get to play in the World Cup by mere invitation as in 1930. There is the agonizing, dizzying, almost incomprehensible odyssey that each nation (except for the host nation and defending champions) must embark on to secure a slot in this battle of thirty two nations.

We in Belize all know too well how difficult a feat this is, compounded by the tumultuous mad-r—s that continues to take place in our FIFA sanctioned national football association.

There are no countries from the Caribbean in this World Cup. The two countries on the Korean peninsula will be there though. The European teams number the most at thirteen. But there are six African nations in this World Cup, one more than the South American continent.

My sentimental favourite is the host South Africa Bafana Bafana team, donned in their yellow and green jerseys like the Jamaican Reggae Boyz of 1998. The South African team was expelled from FIFA in 1976 after the Soweto uprisings. But the country was re- admitted into FIFA in 1991 following the end of apartheid and the development of a multi-racial South African Football Association. The nickname Bafana Bafana, which in Zulu means “the Boys”, was then given to the team.

It is no small achievement to host a global event like the World Cup, and South Africa, two decades after apartheid, has done a phenomenal job so far. They, however, to sustain history and as all previous host teams move on to the second round, must jar with perennial favourites France, two time champ Uruguay and Mexico in their Group A matches. France, Mexico and Uruguay are ranked 10^th, 17^th and 18^th respectively in the FIFA April top 25 ranking list. The South African Bafana Bafana team, however, was not ranked in this list, but two African nations Cameroon and Nigeria were at 19^th and 20^th respectively. So, it does seem a long shot for the Bafana Bafana team to do well and say, reach the semi-finals.

But there is a mystique about the South African Bafana Bafana team. Perhaps the same colossal strength of the South African people that lifted them up from apartheid will power them through their Group A first round matching. And too, the dollar factor is in itself a colossal motivating factor for the Bafana Bafana team. South Africa has invested $5,000,000,000 (3.5 billion British pounds) building stadiums, roads, and public transportation linkages. BBC’s sports editor David Bond reported in his blog on Tuesday that this World Cup will generate more money than any in the history of the event.

All that aside though, there is a certain euphoria and rush football fans across the globe get when the World Cup comes around. Maybe it is the breathtaking extraordinary moves on the football pitch by a Thierry Henry or a Ronaldo (who by the way has the record for the most World Cup goals with 15), or maybe it is just the jaw dropping spectacles  of the football stadiums built just for this event that comes around every four years. Either way, this World Cup gives me a special joy to know that it is being hosted in mother Africa.

One day, just maybe one day, we too will witness our beloved Belize in the World Cup.

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