Ludicrous: 

We regret that that we cannot cover the World Cup as we had intended when we began our focus on African sport over two years ago. Despite assurances that accreditation procedures would not be the shambles that they had been in Ghana, we are disappointed to find that there is no place in South Africa’s World Cup for a national icon.

Our correspondent Aboobaker (Boebie) Williams has been victimised by ridiculous procedures  again. He joined the magazine shortly after the African Cup of Nations in Ghana just over two years ago. Williams was at least spared the ludicrous accreditation procedures of that competition. He was in Ghana to support African football, not as journalist. Applications were submitted on time, but notification came at the last minute and then there was a mad rush to get visas and make arrangements, not to mention the traumatic experience of collecting credentials in Ghana.

Shambles:

Journalists almost rioted over the delays, which caused some to miss matches or have to go without accreditation. “At the beginning there were a few lapses in terms of accreditation,”  former Black Stars defender and member of Ghana 2008’s Organising Committee, Anthony Baffoe told us, “but when the tournament got going I can say that we managed to get it done.” 

Accreditation is one thing that did not go according to plan. Another was arrangements to get to and from press conferences and mixed zone – the opportunity to talk to players after matches. Satish Sekar wasn’t the only journalist to be robbed at a match in Ghana – the shambolic procedures invited it. Journalists were herded into the crowd where they stood out.

Unable to move pockets were rifled through and tools of the trade taken. There wasn’t even an incident room in the stadium to report crimes. A Confédération Africane de Football (CAF) official ‘helpfully’ suggested reporting it to the police the following day. However, the volunteers at Sekondi/Takoradi’s stadium could not have helped more and they made sure it never happened again. The same cannot be said of CAF.

“Where there are masses of people, people get robbed,” said Baffoe. “These things happen. It happened at the World Cup as well, so these are things which are difficult to prevent. I have been around the world. Somebody broke into my car and took documents without returning it in Ghana. It doesn’t just happen in Ghana. It happened in Germany. It happened in Hong Kong and in South America.”

But this misses the point. Better organisation could have prevented at least some crimes. Arrangements to escort journalists to press conferences and mixed zone would have prevented advertising them as targets to be robbed. They had to carry the tools of their trade with them – laptops, dictaphones, cameras, etc. and go through throngs. Thieves could not have wished for better conditions and richer pickings. After the our correspondent was robbed at the stadium, volunteers adopted the procedures that prevented it happening again.

Comparisons:

However, this was at the African Cup of Nations, which was run by the CAF, not FIFA. Should South Africa’s credentials be judged on the same basis? Not according to the CEO of the Organising Committee of South Africa’s World Cup, Dr Danny Jordaan.

“It doesn’t happen in the last thirteen years in South Africa,” said Jordaan. “I think that one of the things that you must understand is that you cannot compare by any stretch of the imagination the African Cup of Nations to the World Cup. There is just no comparison. I mean no-one will compare even the Euro finals to the World Cup, because if you look at the big events of the world there’s only two and that is the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics.”

Jordaan has more to add. “The Euro finals don’t compare to the fabulous event of the World Cup,” he told us exclusively. “The Euro finals is not compared to the World Cup in Germany. It is something that is uniquely preserved for the African continent, where problems in one African tournament leads to the condemnation of the whole continent. It’s just not the way you do things. We will be judged by what we have delivered and I know that we will deliver a World Cup better than anything else FIFA ever had. It will be an African World Cup.”