Fick Fufa

The legacy of the world cup in South Africa won’t be known until weeks, months and even years after the 64 games have ended, the tourists have left, and all the FIFA officials have turned their energies to Brazil. Nevertheless, stories of distress, injustice, absurdity and misfortune are already surfacing. In the midst of a global recession, in a country desperate for job creation, however, it certainly appears as though the primary beneficiary of retail sales is somewhere in the Guangzhou province.

South Africa is the host, and my experiences so far have led me to believe that it is a very accommodating and gracious host. Like well appointed homes all over the world, they have cleaned and swept, dusted off their best china, and are wanting to provide their guests with experiences they will cherish and “gifts” they can return home with. On the streets, we can find vendors selling the flags of many nations, hats and scarves and beaded trinkets of all sorts. The genius behind the vuvuzela socks (flag inspired covers for the generic plastic horn) came to a budding entrepreneur as a vision, and is now a business which employs many compatriots, at least for the duration of the big dance. Stories of success will certainly emerge, and it is those stories for which we must search when the inevitable recriminations occur.

So why the angry title? It was the newspaper headline two days ago, in the wake of the arrest of the “ambush marketers” - 18 women dressed in identical orange dresses, dancing in the stands at the Netherlands-Denmark match last Monday. Police surrounded them, arrested them, made them leave the match...because apparently, some eagle eyed FIFA official (because surely the South African police would not have been aware of this) recalled that the particular orange dress the women were wearing was somehow associated with a Dutch beer company. And the only beer company that can be associated with FIFA is Budweiser. As in many countries, the judicial processes in South Africa are slow, and generally under-resourced. Yet, while the dance card is open, 56 additional courtrooms have been made available expressly for FIFA related “crimes”.

If the idea of a FIFA related crime sounds a bit absurd, especially in the context of a city with one of the world’s highest violent crime rates, it probably is. These are crimes which are perpetrated against the pocket books of the corporate giant which is FIFA. I had never before thought of FIFA as a corporate giant, and if I had ever considered the idea of exclusive marketing rights or sponsorship, it was buried deep somewhere below the frontal cortex. FIFA, it seems, have the power to bend multinational corporations and governments to their demands - the ultimate beneficiary of whom is...not the South African people.

More to come soon...