However, major economic and social concerns still remained beneath much of the public joy. One of the major quirks of the tournament was the amount of people walking around in previously considered dangerous parts of cities at night. He also mentions that travelling on the bus from white suburbs to predominantly black townships was “symbolically significant: it challenged the city’s de facto segregation.” This was one of the first images of people ignoring the travails of everyday life and supporting the same team.

Specifically, he mentions how people travelled to work on the morning of the opening match “with a briefcase in one hand and a vuvuzela in the other” (Fletcher Alegi). In it, Marc Fletcher describes his own experiences in South Africa. It’s argued that hosting the World Cup garnered a “reputational boost for South Africa that could help bring inward investment and visitors.” Some of the effects can be observed by considering the personal accounts relayed in the book Africa’s World Cup. This phrase was chosen as the World Cup slogan in order to portray Africa in a positive way oftentimes, the media depicts the continent as a “backward place of poverty, conflict, dictatorships, and corruption,” so FIFA wanted to combat this by promoting Ubuntu, or African humanism. “Ke nako” is a phrase that was coined before the 2010 FIFA World Cup it translates to “it is time” and refers to the readiness of South Africa to host a global event (Wilson). Click here to learn more about the issues related to the tournament in Brazil. Here, I aim to provide a brief overview of the social and economic implications of the previous FIFA World Cup. Nonetheless, the 2010 tournament is considered by many to have been a success. Internal disputes, along with the economic frustration experienced by the South African population, overshadowed some of the joy in celebrating world unity. In contrast to many instances, where competition is fueled by passion for the sport, racial and xenophobic tensions were bound to arise in this World Cup, given the present-day atmosphere in South Africa. By nature, soccer inspires some of the most profound showcases of patriotism in the world. Leading up to it, there were many social, economic, and political issues that were bound to make an impact on the tournament. The 2010 FIFA World Cup was one of the largest sporting events in history.

Nelson Mandela made a claim that “the World Cup help unify people and if there is one thing in this planet that has the power to bind people, it’s soccer.” However, the use of football to forge a national identify had to overcome the deeply engrained divisions in post-apartheid South Africa. Social and economic Considerations of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa GO BACK TO “2010 SOUH AFRICA WORLD CUP” PAGE

Fifa world cup 2010