Pride and joy

Words are meaningless in some cases...

Banned

So it seems that the UK government has announced it will ban 3000 British football hooligans from travelling to South Africa for the world cup.

Eish, that is 3000 x many pints of beer less income for bars and restaurants across the nation. And less fun for us. It would have been an interesting mix of drunken hooligans, armed local criminals, and ‘shoot-to-kill’ cops. Like a real action movie on the streets of our nation. Reality TV on our doorsteps.

Let’s see if Germany and Holland follow the British example. I mean, all that tax money has been spent on SAPS special anti-hooligan training and fancy new equipment. We demand some action for our bucks.

Maybe some desperate British hooligans will fly to Maputo and sneak into SA through Swaziland. Like old-school MK style.

252

A new month today. October. And 252 days to go to kick off at Soweto’s Soccer City in June next year.

FIFA just finished a tour of the newly built stadiums across the country. The world cup will be spread over 10 football/soccer temples in 9 cities, but 6 of them are brand new and near completion. All are smoothly on track it seems. Smiles all over!!

Officially Soccer City in Soweto was “only” upgraded, but to be honest the whole old stadium was put down and a totally new one was built from scratch. So for me that fits the brand new category.

And so far already 650527 tickets have been sold. World cup fever guaranteed.

I am slightly surprised that by now only 11 national teams of the 32 that will be present here have already the qualification in the bag. By end of November all 32 must be known because on December 4th in Cape Town the groups for the first round of the world cup will be drawn. So I guess in the coming weeks we will see a lot of do or die matches across the globe to grab qualification – or to lose out. Tensions are rising for sure. Travel agents anxiously awaiting final whistles. Footballers’ wives hating the doubts if it will be a (winter) holiday in South Africa or a beach show off in Bermuda. It’s tough living a stress full existence! Sandton shopping mall checking out which ladies will come and spend the husband’s earned millions. The men sweating on the training grounds as the ladies run around shiny corridors with overloaded shopping bags. Now I understand why VISA / Mastercard is an official sponsor of the world cup.

Here’s a little, sporty update amidst the fever. I was curious and did a quick search.

So, if I’m right, for now the only teams with already guaranteed presence in SA are Bafana Bafana as host, star-attraction Brazil, Paraguay, Spain, North (!!) as well as South Korea, Ghana, the Netherlands, England Australia and Japan.

It’s unlikely the world’s most expensive player will be here. Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal is facing a nearly impossible task in their qualifying group. In Africa Nigeria is nervous as they might miss the world cup too because Tunisia is leading in their group. Same stress for African giants Egypt. They are currently second, trailing 3 points behind Algeria. And for Didier Drogba’s Ivory Coast it all just seems a formality. Am sure they booked their air tickets already.

Back in Europe, little Switzerland is making a strong chance of visiting SA. Germany and Russia are pretty much guaranteed presence too. A world cup without Germany seems near impossible. France is sweating it out. They are currently second in their group behind Serbia, but have Austria breathing down their neck. Italy, despite disappointing matches during this year’s Confederations Cup, looks likely to be back in the country.

Others likely to grace us with their presence are the USA, Argentina (hopefully still with coach Diego Maradona), Mexico, and maybe also the All Whites from New Zealand.

If rugby fans are a bit drunk they might think this upcoming world cup is a rugby competition as England, SA, Australia, and maybe New Zealand and France too will be battling it out on a grass pitch.

Green pitches & green future

So we know that in June 2010 we will see the Brazilians and the English and Bafana Bafana and all the other qualified national football/soccer teams showing off their kicking talents across South Africa’s pitches. That’s guaranteed and we are all looking forward to that. Big time! Yebo yes.

But now it seems that there might be something else happening too, and I’m not so sure it is that promising. I discovered that a British tabloid has quoted Mel B saying that the Spice Girls (yes, them) want to reunite for a concert during the World Cup here in SA.

Ai, it hurts. It feels like the hi-jacking of a topclass world event by a by-gone act. They can’t be real. South Africa’s world cup cannot be linked in history for ever with a reunion by the Spice Girls. FIFA please step in with all your might and glory and connections.

Anyway.

We all on regular basis wonder if indeed our weather is different than years ago. If Cape Town has wetter winters, or if the nearly historically famous August winds in Johannesburg have calmed down to just little breezes.

To break through the perceptions and try to pin down these changes the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) has started several projects of so called citizen science. It’s a call to all people of the rainbow nation to check what they believe are changing weather patterns. From flowers’ blossoming times to rainfall in the birdbath. Or migrating birds leaving earlier. Or new species of plants appearing in the garden.

So if you really feel last winter wasn’t what it used to be. Or the flowers in your garden are blossoming way too early, maybe it’s time to become a citizen scientist. You can then drop an email to Dr Dave Thompson of SAEON on leaves@saeon.co.za