The 2010 edition of FIFA’s world cup which held in South Africa, recently came to a climactic end. The event was historic in the sense that it was the first ever to be held on the African continent. In the days preceding the event, speculations were rife in the media about the capability of an African country to host such a global event.  In various doomsday scenarios, fears were expressed on the adequacy (mainly readiness and quality) of infrastructure, the people’s organizational competence as well as a grossly exaggerated crime rate; factors that were supposed to lead to a botched or at best, a poorly attended FIFA festival, relegating the continent to long-term quarantine.

In the end, South Africa 2010, was a “winner”; instead, relegating skeptics to red-faced silence. With a total attendance of 3.18 million fans according to FIFA, it was the third-highest in FIFA world cup history, behind Germany (3.36 million in 2006) and the United States (3.59 million in 1994).  According to Danny Jordan, head of the Local Organizing Committee for FIFA 2010, “…we have succeeded in re-branding and repositioning this country”. Indeed, interest in the country’s magnificent tourism industry (replete with breathtakingly scenic, historic and wildlife resorts) has been reportedly aroused and about 2.2 million additional tourists are expected over the next five years, 1.5 million of them being from overseas; with a handful of world-class stadia and other infrastructure, international conferences and sporting events have already been scheduled over the next few months, and even the 2020 Olympics, broached. In addition, class and racial tensions (in a country with a sad history of such) were jettisoned for a winsome display of national unity. For example, dueling Afrikaner and African nationalisms seemed to vanish in the township of Soweto, as both celebrated, partied and comingled freely under the South African banner.

South Africa 2010 was a month-long carnival which featured among others, the Columbian singer Shakira in collaboration with the South African band, Freshlyground. The group electrified audiences in opening and closing ceremonies with a pop-Latin rendition of an old Makossa song {Zamina mina (Zangalewa)} from Africa. In all, South Africa received a reputational boost and even bequeathed to the world, the “trademark” vuvuzelas, which were noticeably present in last week’s Tour de France stages and likely to be in many a sporting event to come.

On the field of play, there were issues with FIFA’s Jabulani balls, (Jabulani is a South African word meaning “to celebrate”) which were used during the games. Strikers and goalkeepers alike remonstrated on the balls’ erratic flight path; but according to FIFA, the aerodynamically redesigned balls are perfectly round, much more accurate than any before and have earned the governing body’s highest rating. The England goalkeeper Robert Green’s blooper and many of others’, may be attributable more to player error than to any ball whammy.

The games proper, witnessed the early exit of powerhouses such as Brazil, England, Argentina, France and erstwhile champions Italy. Spain, the eventual winners paraded arguably the greatest number of in-form, star-players and were expected to dazzle; but they lost their opening match to “un-fancied” Switzerland and seemingly struggled through just about all their other matches. They however rewrote a vital statistic: no team, having lost an opening match has gone on to win the competition. That was until Spain came along. They also ensured that all five of Europe’s FIFA World Cup winners (which include Italy, Germany, England and France) have lifted their titles at the end of their first Final.

Finally, just a few statistics of interest from FIFA:

• The Finals have witnessed a successive dip in goals tally since the change to a 64-game format twelve years ago: France 1998 – 171; Korea/Japan 2002 – 161; Germany 2006 – 147; South Africa 2010 – 145. Compared to Germany 2006, the ball whammy argument as an excuse for low goals tally in South Africa 2010, does seem untenable.

• A total of fourteen red and yellow cards were issued in the final game between Spain and the Netherlands, surpassing the previous record of just six between Argentina and  Germany in 1986.

• Spain’s David Villa (17 in 7 games, 5 goals) had the highest number of shots on target with the quartet of Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan (5 games, 3 goals), Uruguay’s Diego Forlán (7 games, 5 goals), Argentina’s Lionel Messi (5 games, 0 goals) and another Uruguayan, Luis Suarez (6 games, 3 goals) in close second (15).

• Ghana fielded the youngest team with an average age of just under 24 years, which players were mostly home-bred as was the case with Germany’s team.

• New Zealand remained the only unbeaten team in the competition.

• The inclusion of three brothers (Jerry, Jhony and Wilson Palacios)  in a national team (Honduras) was a FIFA World Cup Final first.

• The highest goal scorers were Thomas Mueller (Germany), David Villa (Spain), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands) and Diego Forlán (Uruguay), each with 5 goals.

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