World Cup Soccer In Africa: Who Really Wins?
Over the last two decades South Africa has made the remarkable journey from pariah nation to 2010 World Cup host, the first time FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, has ever staged its premier tournament on the African continent. For the sanguine set, this stunning turnaround serves as confirmation that the nation’s apartheid past has been relegated to the dustbin of history quicker than anyone could have imagined. More realistic observers, however, amid all the footballing-cum-nationalistic frenzy, obsessive vuvuzela blowing, and treacly commentary about the "new" South Africa, are crying foul and wondering whether, long-term, the World Cup will have much practical benefit for a country whose income inequality is rivaled only by Brazil’s.
The just-released documentary World Cup Soccer in Africa: Who Really Wins? supports the concerns of this latter, decidedly critical camp, taking viewers on a sobering tour of a developing country still struggling to overcome nearly five decades of legally sanctioned white rule. Through pro- and anti-World Cup interviews with individuals representing a wide swath of South African society - wealthy businessmen, street traders, construction workers, journalists, sports icons, academics, as well as the preternaturally genial Archbishop Desmond Tutu - the filmmakers answer their own titular question, exposing the corruption and greed that are at the heart of South Africa’s World Cup saga. Unscrupulous corporations, crooked South African politicians, and the self-serving FIFA: by the end of the documentary, it is painfully obvious that this rapacious triumvirate conspired to "reward" South Africa with a prize it simply could not afford.
Most troubling are the words of ordinary South Africans who have witnessed the costly expansion or new construction of ten massive soccer stadiums scattered throughout their homeland, in some cases even enduring displacement for these future white elephants. After they express their starry-eyed hopes for a successful World Cup run from Bafana Bafana (the nickname for the South African national soccer team), they usually go on to ruefully note the paucity of economic opportunities that have trickled down to them from all the World Cup boosters who promised so much. Listening to such national despair on the heels of so much national pride is truly disturbing.
The special features include extended interviews with two South African luminaries: Archbishop Tutu and soccer legend Jomo Sono. Though tempered by a healthy dose of pragmatism, both men still think that, ultimately, the World Cup might benefit all of South Africa in some tangible way. And in a brief featurette, South African cartoonist Zapiro parses his series of satiric cartoons about FIFA’s awarding of the World Cup to South Africa, chronicling a dishonest process that apparently unfolded in plain sight.
