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Subdued Excitement as South Africa Hosts Africa Cup of Nations Football
Tournament
by Anita Powell
South Africa is hosting this year's Africa Cup of Nations football
(soccer) tournament, but you would not know it to look around
Johannesburg, which is the site of the opening match and the final. It
is a far cry from the mania that washed over South Africa when the
nation hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2010. But officials say the
excitement will build slowly, and fans will come around.
"It's here, can you feel it?" was the question heard across South
Africa when the nation hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
But as South Africa kicks off the Africa Cup of Nations, [1]AFCON, the
answer is, not really.
The tournament begins Saturday with a match between South Africa and
Cape Verde. That match is sold out, but ticket sales for the other
matches have been sluggish and have fallen short of the half-million
target, with just 400,000 tickets sold.
It is, to be fair, a much smaller tournament than the World Cup, which
cost more than $3 billion. AFCON CEO Mvuzo Mbebe said he estimates the
African tournament's cost topped out at just over $100 million.
He says organizers expect as many as 40,000 fans from other African
nations, plus some 200,000 South African fans. The national team,
Bafana Bafana, is playing this year as a host nation after failing to
qualify for the last two tournaments.
Mbebe says he expects the tournament to be a success, but he still
expects some setbacks.
"It happens at the World Cup. There will be games where it's difficult
to fill the stadium. But I think the majority of games in this
instance, whether Bafana Bafana is playing or not, we are going to
get," said Mbebe. "I can tell you now, that in our projections, when
games are being played in Mbombela, that stadium is going to be full
and Bafana Bafana is not going to be there. Our projection is that when
Ghana plays in Nelson Mandela Bay, we'll get 40 to 50 percent of the
stadium full. I think we are going to start getting those numbers. So I
don't think we are really going to have truly, truly empty stadiums
except one or two games."
Mbebe acknowledged that South Africa has not had much time to prepare
for the event, especially since the nation was not the first choice.
The original host, Libya, had a revolution in 2011 and handed off their
hosting duties.
But South African sports minister Fikile Mbalula says he thinks the
nation can pull off a great tournament on a short deadline.
"South Africa's got a history to host tournaments in a short period of
time," said Mbalula. "We hosted [the Indian Premier League cricket
tournament] here, the biggest showpiece, in a very short space of time,
well attended and all of that, in a very short space of time, we didn't
have problems. So we've got history, because we're confident that our
people love football and these things that we bring them, they only see
them from afar, and once they are here people will grab them with both
opportunities. So we are quite confident that we will basically do
well."
For football (soccer) lovers, this tournament promises some delights.
It is going to be the final nation's cup appearance for former Chelsea
striker Didier Drogba of Ivory Coast. It is also the debut appearance
for the team from tiny Cape Verde.
VOA spoke to some half-a-dozen men on the streets of Johannesburg, and
none said they had tickets. All said they would try to get them, and
that they were supporting Bafana Bafana.
Twenty-five-year-old Gustaph Tshepo also says he wants his home team to
win, but he is putting his money on Nigeria taking the title. He says
he will try to go to a match if he can, but lamented that the
tournament is not as well publicized as the World Cup was.
"Like, in 2010, there was posters, everything, everything. But now,
African Cup of Nations, I don't know... Africans, I'm not sure we have
the right marketing points of views, I'm not sure if there's a problem
or what. But I think many people don't know about the African Cup of
Nations," said Tshepo.
But organizers say the enthusiasm will build slowly, and that by the
end, we will all be feeling it.
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[2]http://www.voanews.com/content/south-africa-hosts-cup-of-nations-foo
tball-tournament/1585694.html
References
1. http://www.cafonline.com/
2. http://www.voanews.com/content/south-africa-hosts-cup-of-nations-football-tournament/1585694.html