CaptGondwe,
It's not not a question of being negative, it's a question of priority's. I am an African, my family have been here for almost 400 years. My passport says I am African and the European Community will not give me a passport as they say I am not European. As you say you only visit Africa occasionally I take it you don't live in Africa, although your location say Malawi.
Let's forget about the "touchy, touchy, feelly, feelly" niceness. The country and the continent have bigger issues to worry about then a Soccer World Cup that will bring wealth to FIFA and a selected few, while dragging the tax payer deeper down. The Soccer World Cup will NOT generate LONG TERM job's, or make a profit. Olympics and World Cup's are for prestige and bragging rights for developed country's , we need school's, hospitals, teachers, doctors and the like's.
If you watch the movie Invictus you will see the hopes and the dream that Pres. Nelson Mandela had, and that we all shared with him. Sadly today they are singing "bring my machine gun" and "kill the farmer" from the public stage, not good for nation building or for the continent. The fact that Bafana Bafana did not qualify for the World cup, and is only there as the host nation, don't help a lot to motivate me to support them.
I am the kind of guy that if you want my support it have to be on merit and performance.
May the best team win and may Africa find something more substantial to build our hopes on after this corporate event that is the Soccer World Cup.