World Cup 2010

The World Cup 2010

The World Cup 2010 Final will be held in South Africa this coming year. It wasn’t always the case that such was guaranteed though. Let’s late a look back at some of the controversy surrounding the tournament, given the issues that South Africa had with arranging things.

In 2006, many people were still questioning the ability of the South Africans to be able to hold the tournament in their country since the economy was in something of a shambles and they were concerned that they would not complete all the facilities in time. However, at the time World Cup President Sett Blatter sent an unequivocal message saying, “Plan A is the 2010 World Cup will be staged in South Africa. Plan B is the 2010 World Cup will be staged in South Africa. Plan C is the 2010 World Cup will be staged in South Africa.”

In spite of this confidence, as late as June of 2009, the tournament was once again in doubt when workers on the facilities for the tournament demanded a raise of 13% in wages and were offered only 10.4% (among the areas that had potential to not be finished in time were stadiums, airports, freeways and Johannesburg’s new high-speed rail link, all of which were expected to be done by the end of December).

While the difference may not seem like much to the outside observer, to these workers it was a life and death situation and they felt they simply could not continue without getting that raise. To understand this, one must understand that the average worker was taking home just $100-$300 per month for his work, so even the small amount could very well mean the difference between feeding a family or doing without. The strike had threatened to derail plans for parts of the facilities and would have marred the chances for a successful World Cup 2010 Final.

Fortunately, the strike was ended when the sides in the dispute compromised and an 11.5% raise was approved for the workers. Among the compromises that were agreed to though was that the workers would still retain the right to strike in the future if they felt they needed to. This is a well enshrined idea in South Africa as worker strikes were a common way for the people to fight against the old apartheid regime.

Sports fans everywhere can now breathe easier, knowing that the problems have gone the way of apartheid and we can once again look forward to the The World Cup 2010 Final in South Africa.

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Chuck White
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