World Cup 2010: Is South Africa Ready?

With the World Cup 2010 rapidly approaching, thousands of England fans are set to make the long journey over to South Africa to (hopefully) watch England lift the Jules Rimet cup for only the second time in their history.

Considering Africa usually welcomes tourists on safari holidays, they’re about to welcome thousands and thousands of fans from all over the planet. So is the country, its people and its infrastructure ready for such a huge tournament?

South Africa has been the subject of a lot of questions and criticisms as they attempt to prepare for the World Cup. Cape Town, which will see a huge number of England fans, has a phenomenally high murder rate. This doesn’t automatically mean that football fans travelling to South Africa are unsafe however?

It seems to me that the country is in fact extremely well prepared for the World Cup, all the stadiums are in fantastic condition and the pitches look great, the public transport is as good as (if not better) than our own and the people of South Africa are genuinely excited to welcome the tournament.

The police in South Africa are extremely good at their jobs too, recognising that it will be a difficult job to police such a huge amount of people, but seeming genuinely confident that they can keep local troublemakers under control and can ensure the safety of visiting foreign nationals.

I really don’t think England fans (or any other fans) will have many problems travelling to the World Cup; i would of course not suggest wandering too far away from the main tourists areas, particularly on your own, but i’d give the same advice to a someone travelling to London or Glasgow.

For anyone that is travelling over to the World Cup, don’t let yourself get too bogged down worrying about personal safety; South Africa takes is responsibilities very seriously and with a bit of common sense you’ll be fine. Let’s not forget our responsibility, not only as football fans but as English citizens, to behave responsibly and respectfully at all times, given some English fans’ behaviour at previous World Cup and Euro tournaments. Oh, and it’s winter there, so take a coat!

John works for a travel company specialising in Kenya Holidays and Tanzania Safari‘s. John has been to South Africa several times and is a massive football fan.

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