2010 Status Update

Every now and again I like to update everyone on my progress towards my original goal of getting to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup.

So how am I doing? Good, I suppose.

The World Cup's a few years away and although I have time, the steps need to be taken now in order to assure I'll be there cheering on Brazil, Spain and the USA.

That's what I'm focusing on right now: How do I get to South Africa?

In the meantime, I'm working on getting to Ghana for the African Cup of Nations in January. That's proving to be a tough cookie. My thinking is that a trip there can boost the blog from a straight rhetorical of the African football world to a true narrative from a soccer lover's point of view of the inner workings of the African game. In other words, instead of cutting and pasting the news, I'll actually be there to report it. That'll make a world of difference.

I'm also still thinking of assisting a children's charity through my work. There's one in particular I'm thinking about but I'll keep that to myself until the time is right. I'm not quite sure how to tie the two together. Does anyone have suggestions?

The rest is just cosmetic:
How do I make the blog look nicer?
How do I tighten the writing?
What's the theme of the writing?
How do I get more people to read the work?
How can I make some money to get to Ghana and South Africa through the writing?

There's so much I want to say and so much I'd like to write about. The question is, how do I get to that point?

This blog writing process has been amazing. I've learned a great deal about Africa and its football through the posts. I'm amazed at the number of people that read the blog and befuddled to see the different places my writing goes. It's all so surreal at times.

I love football. It's a game that's strangely put its talons into my soul and refused to let go. Try as I might, the game seeps into my thoughts, my language, even my dreams. I can't escape it. People may say I'm trying to direct my life to involve football more closely. I'd say that's true. But on top of that, I'd like to use my writing ability (I'd like to think I have a small amount) to inform, educate and entertain.

I'd like to inform you that African football is vivid, colorful and wonderful.
I'd like to say that Africa isn't a sad sack continent as is often depicted in Western media. From the people I've met from there, it's a unique, lively continent, full of joy, full of passion, full of hope for the future.
And of course, I'd like to make you smile, carrying you along with good humor and a smile on my face as we all make our way to the Final game July 11th, 2010.

So I'd say the journey's going as good as it can so far. I'm certainly enjoying the ride. Can't wait to make it to Africa.

1000 Days to the 2010 World Cup

It's almost here! Can you feel it?
Ok, not *almost* here, but on its way ... slowly but surely, the opening of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is creeping up on us.

How am I getting there? I have somewhat of a clue (look at some of my previous posts on this subject under 'Trip to Africa') but I'm still not entirely sure. For the purposes of intrigue and mystery (and because I have no answer to this), I'll just say that more time is now being freed up to concentrate on this.

Anyways, 1000 days! This, a press release from Ndaba Dlamini of the Johannesburg News Agency regarding the plans in place to commemorate the countdown to the World Cup in South Africa.

To read the original article, please click here!

THE 1 000-day countdown to the 2010 Fifa World Cup™ will be marked on Saturday, 15 September at several celebrations around the country. They are aimed at upping the excitement quotient and getting all South Africans to rally behind the tournament.

In Joburg, a concert in Newtown will mark the start of the official countdown to the kick-off of the 2010 Fifa World Cup™. Among others, musicians Dozi, Amanda Strydom and the Soweto String Quartet are expected to perform.

The World Cup kicks off on 11 June 2010 and South Africa's preparations are already way ahead compared to Germany a thousand days before the last World Cup, in 2006.

Speaking about the thousand-day countdown at Safa House on Thursday, 5 September, Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), said commendable strides had been made in preparing for the event.

"The [1 000-day mark] signifies the start of the operational phase of the preparations, a period where we start moving and getting ready for the Confederations Cup."

Already, the LOC had selected the nine cities that would host the 64 matches to be played during the World Cup. Five stadiums that would host the Confederations Cup had also been selected.

Johannesburg plays host to the opening ceremony, and the first and final games.

A Host City Forum, a meeting composed of all the host cities, had also been set up, Jordaan said. "The forum meets once a month to [give] their monthly reports concerning their preparations for the World Cup. We are very happy to say that we are satisfied with the progress all the cities are making so far."

Host city and stadium construction contracts had been signed and the rights protection committee, composed of the national government, Fifa and the LOC, had been set up, he added.

"We are also proud to say construction of all 10 stadiums has started and construction of most of the stadiums is well ahead of schedule. People have to look just across the road to see the progress." Jordaan was referring to work on the 94 700-seat FNB Stadium, which is expected to host the opening ceremony and match as well as the final match of the World Cup.

Soccer City, the venue for the final, is being upgraded and work is well ahead of schedule.

There are five new stadiums under construction and Jordaan said this posed a big challenge. Yet South Africa would be on record as the first World Cup host country to finish building five stadiums in time for the tournament.

"As we move into the operational phase, the Fifa World Cup and the Confederations Cup match schedules have been finalised. A number of commercial sponsors have been secured and we expect more sponsors to come into the fold. Currently, 98 percent of the broadcast rights have been sold."

State support had been commendable and R17,4-billion had been allocated by the national government to renovate and build new stadiums. In addition, it had assigned R3-billion for support infrastructure around stadiums.

"This is Fifa's World Cup, and there are so many organisations, countries [and] high-profile personalities who have put their weight behind the staging of the event, and we cannot afford to disappoint," Jordaan said.

Tim Modise, the LOC's chief communications and marketing officer, said a number of celebrations had been lined up for Saturday, 15 September to "galvanise South Africans behind the hosting of the tournament".

"The events are a way to inform organisations, institutions and all stakeholders involved in the hosting of the World Cup that we are on course to host a successful World Cup event. This is also an opportunity to give the host cities a chance to say how far they are with preparations."

Quick Tidbits

On this day of personal reflection (please see my previois entry), here are some news items I've scrounged up from the Internet.

(***A small note about about my news scrounging: Trust me, I'm no fan of copying & pasting someone else's writing on this blog. But, I think it serves a valuable purpose.

One, you get a one-stop outlet for quick bites of African football news.
Two, we learn together about the complexities and beauty of the Beautiful Game in Africa. The game in the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent is too often overlooked.

There will come a time when the reporting on this blog will be first-hand. Until then, I'll set a base for information & news to enlighten both the reader and the writer. That's a good start, no?)

So let me stop blabbering & let's get on to it ...

- FIFA, football's world governing body, said today that only 18 African countries visited have soccer stadiums safe enough to allow them to host World Cup qualifiers.

FIFA officials completed an inspection of 50 of the continent's 53 football playing nations in June. They did not visit Kenya, Somalia or World Cup hosts South Africa.

The inspections follow FIFA's decision last year to insist on better safety standards at international matches, particularly World Cup qualifiers. No dates have been set for next year's Africa qualifiers.

This is bad news. The state of the stadia in Africa is cause for alarm. Now the question is, what will the nations without adequate stadiums do to get them up to par? What are the conditions on getting the stadium to safe levels?

- Frequently, news services like the BBC print articles highlighting the contribution of African players in domestic leagues around Europe. Here's such an article from today.

'There were just two African goalscorers on a quiet opening weekend in the French Ligue 1.

Morocco striker Youssef Hadji scored for Nancy as they beat Rennes 2-0, when he flicked the ball over the approaching Rennes goalkeeper in the 41st minute to seal the win.

Guinea's Pascal Feindouno salvaged a point for St Etienne, scoring from the penalty spot in the 47th minute as his side drew 1-1 with Monaco.

But it was a bad start to the season for Mali midfielder Sidi Keita of Lens as he was sent-off for a brutal challenge in the last minute of his side's 1-0 loss at Bordeaux.

Reigning Champions Lyon, who are looking for a seventh straight title, started their campaign with a 2-0 win over Auxerre 2-0 on Sunday.

There were also just two African scorers on the opening weekend in Belgium.

Ivorian striker Francois Zoko was on target for Mons Bergen, but it wasn't enough as his side lost 2-1 to Club Bruges.

The only other goal was by Paito Tambwe from Congo-Brazzaville the striker scored the opening goal for his side Lokeren in their 2-1 victory over St Truiden.

Many other clubs from around Europe are still playing pre-season friendlies and several Africans were on target in those too.

English premiership side Portsmouth beat Leicester City from a division below 3-1 with the DR Congo striker Lomana LuaLua on the score sheet.

Nigeria's Yakubu Ayegbeni scored the second for another Premiership side Middlesbrough who beat Ducth side AZ Alkmaar 2-0.

Fellow Nigerian Ikechukwu Uche gave his Spanish side Getafe an 11th minute lead as they trounced Dutch side Sparta Rotterdam 6-1.

FC Porto won the Rotterdam Cup after beating Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua 3-0 with Moroccan striker Tarik Sektioui scoring the opener for the Portuguese champions. The win was sufficient for them to finish ahead of Liverpool and hosts Feyenoord, who drew 1-1 in Sunday's other game.

Nigeria's Peter Odemwingie scored for Lokomotiv Moscow, who were beaten 4-3 in a penalty shoot-out by Italy's European Champions AC Milan, in the Russian Railways tournament.

Odemwingie had scored the third for Lokomotiv as his side led 3-1 before Milan fought back with two goals in the last three minutes to make the final score 3-3.

Personal Musings

It's been some time since I updated you on my travels to South Africa 2010 and the World Cup Final on July 11, 2010.

It's been a good and bad journey so far.
The good has been the wealth of knowledge I've gained about Africa, its people and the wonderful game of football.

The bad has been the unbelieveable task I face of getting to SA 2010.

It's not impossible. Nothing is. But I find the going tough these days and I'm racking my brain for new and better ways of acheiving my goals.

I truly believe I have some solid plans in place. What I'm not so sure about is how to implement them.

Anyways, there's been talk of going back to school, volunteering in Kenya, fund-raising, grant-writing and writing a book.

All solid plans. Now I have to pull the trigger. On something.

I think the most solid plan is my journey to Ghana and the 2008 African Cup of Nations. I see no reason why I can't go. I'm saving the money, I'm determined to do some real first-hand reporting and I'm excited by the possibilities.

Beyond that, the best I can do is learn about the continent and its rich, sometimes pained history.

I recently picked up a book titled, 'King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa' by Adam Hochschild. It deals with Belgium's rule of the Congo at the turn of the 20th century. Here's a description from the book itself:


'In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million--all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century, in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated. King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust. Adam Hochschild brings this largely untold story alive with the wit and skill of a Barbara Tuchman. Like her, he knows that history often provides a far richer cast of characters than any novelist could invent. Chief among them is Edmund Morel, a young British shipping agent who went on to lead the international crusade against Leopold. Another hero of this tale, the Irish patriot Roger Casement, ended his life on a London gallows. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked much to bring evidence of the Congo atrocities to the outside world. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young Congo River steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming above them all, the duplicitous billionaire King Leopold II. With great power and compassion, King Leopold's Ghost will brand the tragedy of the Congo--too long forgotten--onto the conscience of the West.'

Sounds amazing and terrifying.

So that's a quick update. Still writing, still reading, still planning a trip in January. Still trying to figure this all out.

If anyone has suggestions, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!
I need all the help I can get.