2010 Security Concerns

[Louis]

http://www.worldsoccer.com/editor/

 

If FIFA had imagined the worse thing that could happen, from a PR perspective, in the build-up to Sunday’s World Cup draw, the chances are that a friend of Franz Beckenbauer being shot dead in South Africa would be pretty high on the list of potential calamities.

 

FIFA has tried to play down the death of Pieter Burgstaller, a former Austria Salzburg goalkeeper who was shot on a golf course near Durban, as having no connection with the World Cup. Burgstaller was a “tourist who was not a member of the delegation coming for the draw,” said FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

 

 

 

Yet 43-year-old Burgstaller was in South Africa for this week’s Soccerex conference and had reportedly been offered tickets for the World Cup draw by Beckenbauer when they bumped into each other last week. So whether FIFA likes it or not, the world will associate Burgstaller’s murder with the 201 World Cup.

 

 

 

Irrespective of the true facts and figures on South Africa’s crime rate, the seeds have now been sown in many people’s minds of South Africa as a country riddled with violent crime. Forget stadiums, forget transport, forget hotels. Security will be the major concern in the countdown to 2010.

 

 

 

The danger now facing FIFA is that the World Cup organisers will resort to Apartheid-style policing – of which, let’s face it, the South African security forces have considerable experience. Whole areas of the country will be deemed no-go in a bid to persuade fans that the country will be safe to visit in 2010. And instead of the celebration of Africa that the 2010 World Cup promised to be, we’ll get a sanitised, whites-only tournament attended exclusively by those wealthy enough to pay for their own security.

[MikeO]

That's a great shame. Don't know the facts but I'd have thought SA, like many (probably most) countries in the world has places where you don't go. I suspect that this sort of murder is pretty rare....hope so anyway. The World Cup in Africa is overdue and I hope it's a great success..

[StevO]

i have a friend who originates from Durban, insisting we go over and stay with his family for a couple of weeks for the WC. i'm looking forward to it, but a little worried about being whites staying in a black neighbourhood, but they have 3 years to hopefully sort out what they can

[GoldfishMemory]

Just get yourself a gun you pussy, 'when in rome......' an all that

[StevO]

i might get myself a smoke!