Football as religion

HONG KONG – As the locals put it, neither China nor Hong Kong are in the month-long World Cup of football in South Africa, but the city warmly welcomed, arguably, the greatest sporting show on earth which kicked off Friday.

Pubs, restaurants and hotels arranged World Cup meals and deals while malls and shopping centers displayed World Cup merchandise that served to further heighten interest in the 32-nation football festival. At the JW Marriott in Pacific Place in Queensway, management, led by Fiona Szeto, director of communications, and Benjamin Graham, restaurant manager, organized the World Cup Party in one of the most exclusive spots in the hotel, the Riedel Room.

It was at Riedel where we watched the opening ceremonies of an event which is being held in Africa for the first time and which help South Africans relive that moment 16 years ago when, in the words of Barry Bearak of the International Herald Tribune, “As Nelson Mandela took the presidential oath and apartheid slipped further into ignominy, he declared that South Africa was no longer “the skunk of the world” but rather a “rainbow nation” where people of all colors could live in harmony. A year later, as pointed out by Bearak, he urged his countrymen–black and white–to support their national rugby team, the sports obsession of the Afrikaner (white) population. The team won the world championship, a feel-good story relived in the movie, “Invictus”.

It is said the involvement of Mandela (imprisoned for 26 years by the white South African government and an idol of the late President Corazon C. Aquino) in South Africa’s bid to host the world championship of football, considered a black man’s sport in the country, was pivotal in South Africa’s successful bid to host World Cup 2010.

Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, in its June 11 editorial, said that Mandela’s appearance in the 1995 rugby World Cup final wearing South Africa’s national shirt helped break down racial barriers after the end of the apartheid era and, indeed, inspired the country’s victory in that tournament.

The “liberation icon”, as the Post called the former South African president (who will turn 92 in a few weeks), was to have made a brief appearance during the opening ceremony last Friday evening but canceled it when his 13-year old great grand-daughter, Zenani, was killed in a car crash earlier in the day. According to Bearak, Zenani was returning home from the World Cup’s kickoff concert in Soweto on Thursday when she met the accident on a Johannesburg highway. The driver of the car was accused of drunken driving and may be charged with culpable homicide.

Mandela had said that the tournament would bridge racial divides, it being held in the Rainbow Nation. Aa hosts, South Africa will be in a euphoric state as hosts for the next three weeks of the most watched television spectacle in the world.

The South African team, known as Bafana Bafana or The Boys, although ranked 90 in the world, gave South Africans a lot to cheer about when they battled the highly touted Mexican La Tri squad, ranked 17, to a 1-all draw before 84,000 fans.

“As of this writing, Ghana (32) upset Serbia (16) while Slovenia (23) beat Algeria (31), 1-0, with the Algerians complaining about the “unpredictable” Jabulani World Cup ball; Uruguay (1950 champion) and France (1998 titlist) fought to a scoreless draw; England (8) and the United States (14) both earned one point after finishing with one goal apiece; Argentina, featuring former star player Diego Maradona as coach, shot down Nigeria’s Super Eagles (21), the second ranked team from Africa, 1-0; South Korea (47) dumped a surprisingly anemic Greece (12), which has never scored a goal in the World Cup, 2-0. With the victory, South Korea, which co-hosted with Japan the competitions in 2002, comes closer to its dream of making it to the last 16.

South Africa, which is the second lowest ranked team in the tournament (North Korea is 106), hopes to get past the first round, when the 32 teams are reduced to 16 squads, and avoid setting a dubious record for World Cup hosts. The Bafana Bafana hope to finish in the top two in Group A which includes Mexico, Uruguay and France.

In the next three weeks, the world will be treated to football at its finest. Rohit Branath of The Straits Times of Singapore wrote on May 22, “And so we wait for June 11, for this four-yearly time when the religion that is football is at its highest moment. As Anthony Burgess once reportedly said, “Five days shalt thou labor. The seventh day is the Lord thy God’s. The sixth day is for football.”