Its not about the football .....

'They' say that good things come to those who wait ... and never was there a more true saying this week in South Africa! I am not talking about my long awaited blog post by the way.... but am of course referring to the Fifa World cup. It seems like just a couple of months ago that Sepp Blatter opened his envelope revealing that South Africa was to be the host city for the biggest show on earth in 2010 , which back then was to be in just over 6 years time. It seemed like a life time away and yet here it is -within touching distance!

I remember at the time in 2004 feeling extremely excited and have referred back several times since to my hopes that it would be a replica of 1995 in terms of reconciliation value, but have to admit though, that the last 6 years have been a long journey and I would be lying if I said I have not had my doubts occasionally that this day would ever arrive !

Whilst most of the country appeared to be celebrating from the off set - there were many that refused to see the benefits of hosting such a prestigious event. Every question and obstacle one can imagine was raised .... from under budgeting and stadium location protests, you name it, it happened ! It did not help of course, that we also had a change of President along the way, a man with a fair few question marks of his own! There was also the Zimbabwe situation, which although officially nothing to do with South Africa, as it's immediate neighbour, in the eyes of the rest of the world, we will always be tarred with the same brush. Then came those rumours .... "Australia is on stand by" as South Africa will not be ready in time. Although Sepp Blatter denied it, the news cut like a knife. Perhaps it is Psychological ... but I am sure this was the turning point. Almost over night, the stadiums began to appear and people seemed to have a new energy about them, despite the overseas media being more negative than ever. Then again Mr Malema had now entered the game and apart from telling BBC journalists to get lost, he was not exactly making himself many friends in SA either. Then just when we thought we had faced it all ....Eugene Terreblanche was murdered in his sleep, which with the help of the media once again - helped scare off many people that were still on the fence about whether to come. Meanwhile , back at the ranch, many guest house and hotel owners that were hoping to score over the world cup had been heavily let down by MATCH the body appointed by FIFA to coordinate all accommodation bookings. Not only have they not recived the world cup bookings they had hoped, due to the rolls of red tape, but many people who would perhaps have normally visited South Africa at other times during the year have crossed the destination off their calendar completely this year - just subconsciously believing it is not the right time to be there. They were not the only ones to lose out ... the many street vendors that were hoping to sell Football shirts etc were told that only FIFA branded shirts were allowed. So guess you could say there are always going to be winners and losers in everything in life, except that I still believe there WILL be many many more winners and that many people I speak to still seem to be missing the point completely. As Lance Armstrong once said "its not about the bike" .... and once again in this case, it is not about the football ... or the 6 weeks during whether we have more or less tourists here than we thought we would. The POINT is this. It is the single biggest opportunity South Africa will ever have to show the world what they are truly about as a country, as people and as a united nation - PR does not get better than this!! If I had received one rand for every time I have had to listen to or read a negative story on Sky news about SA, I would be very rich by now, with my main frustration being that they never report the 'other side of the coin' . Well now it is their chance and I am pleased to say that I can already see the tide turning and how the reporters are being enchanted and humbled by the people they meet and the scenes of the same reconcilliation as 1995. I guess in a way, they have done us a favour, as most of the fans visiting SA at the moment have arrived here expecting anything from "Blood baths" to "Worldcup Violence" and god knows what else, so anything less than that ... and they are very happy! Once again though - the POINT is that they will go back home and tell all of their friends about the fantastic time they had in SA ensuring that the world cup leaves a lasting legacy afterall.