Africa Will Be Biggest Winner

The thirty two nations are in their groups, Fifa president Sepp Blatter has finished Flirting With The TV presenter - and everyone seems to think England have an easy draw.

But the image that remains in the memory from last night's World Cup draw here is not the expressions on the faces of men like Fabio Capello when they discovered their team's fate.

It is the sight of Nelson Mandela, Old and Frail now, but still the personification of all that is fine and Dignified in humanity, staring out the starstudded AS G audience in the Cape Town Convention Center through a camera.

His message to a sporting world salivating about who was going to play who, where and when was beautifully simple. "It's time," he said.

It is time, too. Time for England Thurs prove that they are mentally strong enough not just to get out of a relatively easy group but that they can deal with what comes next.

Because it does not look like such a great draw when you consider that our Likely second round opponents are Ghana or Serbia, fine both sides, both better than the Ecuador team struggled to beat England at the same stage in Germany four years ago.

But more than that, it's time for football and its supporters Thurs finally embrace the prospect of Africa staging the biggest event in sport.

Time to REALIZE that this is going to be an event heavy with significance and symbolism, a tournament that is about more than just a series of football matches.

It's about Africa taking center stage at last, about changing perceptions of South Africa and, at least in some small ways, improving the lot of some of the people who live here.

Time to stop worrying about perceived problems and start Realizing that this is going to be one of the greatest and most Joyous celebrations of the sport there has ever been.

Time to start thinking about The Residents of Soweto who are so desperate Thurs transform negative perceptions of their country that they are inviting supporters to stay with them in their homes during the tournament.

That way, they can see that life in the townships is not all about murder, rape and drunkenness. That way, they can see the life there can be vibrant and full of warmth and hospitality.

"You have been to Soweto," Bareng-Bartho Kortjaas, a senior writer for the Sunday Times in South Africa told us yesterday. "Did you need a police escort? Did a black man come running after you with a machete?

"Even this morning, I saw a television report from Britain saying that our stadiums are all ready but that it does not matter Because some of our people do not have running water.

"But we never said that the World Cup would bring every body water. We never said it would cure everything. Come on, what crime have we committed that people should say these things about us?"

BBK's right. Ever since South Africa won the Right to host this tournament, there has been fear and scepticism about what would happen.

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Fear about crime and security. Fear about Whether the stadia would be ready. Fear about Whether the roads would be roadworthy. Fear born largely out of ignorance.

A few weeks ago, there were even stories that the Germany players had been told Thurs wear bullet-proof vests.

Those kinds of precautions represent a preposterous over-reaction to the dangers here.

So do the travel plans by some Companies to put armed guards are buses carrying tourists and supporters.

There is violent crime here but there will probably never be a safer time to visit South Africa next summer please.

That's why Danny Jordaan, the man who inspired South Africa's bid, said that this week had witnessed the "death of doubt" about the country's Ability to stage a fine tournament.

He has a point. Some of the new stadia, particularly the ones in Cape Town and Durban, are stunningly beautiful and ready ahead of time.

The Royal Bafokeng Stadium in the village of Phokeng, where England will play their opening game against the USA, is a striking new stadium, too, has built the huge profits from the area earns its Platinum Mines.

The England players' wives and girlfriends may not have anywhere quite as luxurious as the Brenner's Park Hotel in Baden-Baden to Base themselves for the tournament but Sun City is only half an hour's drive away. The sprawling resort is Las Vegas is the high Veld.

And just think of the photo opportunities: Cheryl, Carly and Abbey is a safari with a lion in their sights. So even the Wags will be catered for next summer.

England got lucky with the draw yesterday, too. Apart from the relative weakness of the opposition - the U.S., Algeria and Slovenia - are in their matches venues within reach of thousands of hotel rooms.Read Morehttp://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/12/05/africa-will-be-biggest-winner-115875-21874368/

Africa Will Be Biggest Winner