How can they get it so wrong? This is only one stadium. It will cost R17 mil. a year in the upkeep of the stadium in Durban alone, no wonder the Natal Sharks Rugby Board said "No Thank You"

Soccer City R1bn over budget: Sport: Sport: 2010 World Cup: Tournament News

More updated figures
 

FIFA is a business, not the welfare. The South Africa tax payer is going to be paying for a long time. Danny Jordaan and his lieutenants are the only one's smiling.

World Cup 2010: Fifa forced to give South Africa extra cash to ensure tournament ready - Telegraph

Looks like the Colombian team have already had a little taste of what the future holds. Hotel staff went through their kit and helped themselves to cash.

Perhaps now would be the time, in the interests of true racial harmony, to start a thread entitled:

'African Antics.'

The word 'African' in this case referring to the continent.
Antics in English means goings on.
So it is quite permissible hyperbole?

Anyone who thinks that this is going to ensure readiness is living in a fools' paradise. I am sure that many hands are being rubbed in glee and a few nice new Maseratis will soon be driving around with non-reflective gentlemen at the wheel.

Some might suggest perhaps that there are no more nice Maseratis than there are non reflective gentlemen.

As an African born pilot who lives abroad but often visits Africa, I find it disturbing how we are all so negative about the World Cup. I have taken leave and will be watching 3 games in South Africa and I am sure a wonderful world cup will be hosted but if everyone is so pessimistic we are setting ourselves up for trouble. We should unite as Africans and try and show the world that we are capable of hosting such a spectacle.

Happy 100th Birthday South Africa!
(Union of South Africa formed on 31 May 1910.)

Wouldn't it be nice to have Air Force fly-pasts to celebrate, maybe even some aeroplanes in a '100' formation? (It has been done... I know, I was in it!)

That would be a very nice 'kick off' to the forthcoming World Cup... (and a very nice excuse for someone to fly some aeroplanes and the public to enjoy seeing them!):)

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.

ByAirMail : You hit the nail on the head there, pretty much as I said in posts 33 and 35.

Can't you guys just put all the politics aside for just 30 days and enjoy the greatest sporting event on earth hosted in our country!:D

porra, it's not just politics, it's principles and responsibility. "Yes, I know it's blood diamonds, but I cannot resist the glitter."

Sure - politics aside-

It's a complete rip off of the South African tax payer for the benefit of, among others, FIFA and Julius Malema, whose construction corruption needs little introduction. The national football team is not good enough to qualify. FIFA have described the SA medical disaster cup plan as a disaster and the longer term benefits to the infrastructure are open to questioning especially when you consider the number of unemployed young men who will suddenly be dumped upon the urban environment.
Forgive me please for being somewhat jaded-and all that aside-professional football is a noisesome prostituted affair where no man's team is his own country and the fans of which, in general, seem to behave as though they belonged in camps rather than being allowed to inflict themselves upon the public victims of their anti social behaviour.
Perhaps there will be sufficient Eskom power cuts and cold winter weather to take the steam out of the alcohol fuelled excesses.

Porra :If only it were about sport, then yes (personally I wouldn't enjoy it as I loathe football and everything that surrounds it) perhaps some people could enjoy it.

It is very much a political statement at the expense of the tax payer and the general public, and that is regrettable, to put it mildly.

The likelihood it passing off with out major logistical glitches is negligible, what is of greater concern is that it is almost inevitable that many people will be the victims of crime of one sort or another. I can only hope that this will be what is considered in SA to be 'petty' meaning it will only be theft and scams.

That rather a little bit begs the comment that as the only victims of crime are likely to be football fans and as they are not the flavour of this lifetime, who cares, as, in the case of their victimisation by criminals, they will not be likely to return to the beloved country?

Sjoe, u guys have a lot of time on ur hands!

Now - where's the YAWN smilie...?

Porra
 

Porra, you got involved in a debate and that's all you can come up with??

Is it the desert defence?

these are the people that's going to bring us all that money and soccer happiness.

Cops intercept Eng hooligans: Sport: Sport: 2010 World Cup: National News