Dwarslêers gesteel

Dwarslêers gesteel

2010-06-20 22:50

Die stoomlokomotief, kolewa en watertenk van die Friends of the Rail-stoomtrein lê gister op sy kant nadat hy 800?m van die Cullinan-stasie ontspoor het. Foto: Theana Calitz
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Mia Willemse
’n Stoomlokomotief wat waens met honderde passasiers gesleep het, het gister op ’n Vadersdag-uitstappie buite Pretoria ontspoor omdat dwarslêers naby die Cullinan-stasie onder die treinspoor uitgesteel is.“Dankie, Here, my pa is oukei,” het me. Dominique Smith (25) van Pretoria-Oos gister met ’n groot glimlag gesê kort nadat die lokomotief van die Friends of the Rail-stoomtrein, waarvan haar pa, Steve (55), die stoker was, ontspoor en ná ’n “harde slag” op sy sy beland het.Volgens mnr. Johannes Jaf-tha, polisiewoordvoerder, het die ongeluk 10:55 gebeur en is nie een van die 627 passasiers wat Vadersdag op dié 190 ton-trein op ’n uitstappie was, beseer nie. “’n Voorlopige ondersoek wys dat boewe ’n paar van die dwarslêers op die spoor naby Cullinan gesteel het en dít het die ongeluk veroorsaak,” het Jaftha gesê. Die stoomlokomotief, kole-wa en die watertenk van die trein het omgeslaan.’n Verligte Dominique Smith het vertel sy en haar suster, Bernadine (24), het gister spesiaal op die trein gery omdat hul pa moes werk en hulle op Vadersdag by hom wou wees.Die trein was omtrent 800 m van sy stilhouplek op die Cullinan-stasie van waar hy sou terugkeer Pretoria toe. “Toe ek die ongelooflike harde slag hoor, was die heel eerste gedagte wat deur my kop gegaan het of my pa oukei is. “Ek het geweet hy is voor in die lokomotief en toe ons stop, spring ek uit en hardloop met alles wat in my is om by hom uit te kom.”Volgens mnr. Smith het hy dadelik na sy twee dogters, wat in een van die agterste waens was, gehardloop. “Ek kon hulle nie dadelik kry nie, toe bel ek vir Dominique (op haar selfoon) en was só verlig toe ek hoor hulle het nie seergekry nie. Ons kan vandag vier dat ons drie darem nog lewe en volgende jaar kan ons gelukkig weer Vadersdag saam wees,” het hy gesê.Volgens hom het dinge baie vinnig gebeur. “’n Trein kan nie dadelik tot stilstand kom nie en toe ons agterkom wat aangaan, was dit reeds te laat. Ek het na goed gegryp waaraan ek kon vashou om nie aan die onderkant van die vallende trein te beland nie,” het hy gesê. Mnr. Nathan Berelowitz, voorsitter van die Friends of the Rail-klub, het gesê: “As dit nie was vir die drywer wat omtrent so stadig soos loopspoed gery het nie, kon hierdie ongeluk in ’n baie lelike tragedie verander het.”Mnr. Henry Lazenby, wat gister in beheer van die trein was, het gesê die trein het baie skade opgedoen. “Die boewe het beslis vir baie skade gesorg.“Toe ek daardie verskriklike slag hoor, het ek geweet daar is net een ding wat dit kon veroorsaak,” het hy gesê. Volgens hom steel boewe die dwarslêers om meubels mee te maak.Friends of the Rail is ’n nie-winsgewende organisasie. Die geld wat hulle met uitstappies verdien, word gebruik om ou stoomlokomotiewe te restoureer. Die Spoorveiligheidsreguleerder het gister in ’n verklaring gesê hulle ondersoek die voorval. Mense met inligting oor die diefstal van die dwarslêers word gevra om die Cullinan-polisiekantoor by 012 734 0751 te skakel.

Oranje rokkies: 2 oorweeg regsaksie

Oranje rokkies: 2 oorweeg regsaksie

2010-06-18 22:32
Rokkies laat 2 in hof beland
Daniëlla du Plooy
Die twee Nederlandse vroue wat in hegtenis geneem is oor “roofbemarking” by WB 2010, oorweeg stappe teen Fifa en die polisie.Mee. Mirte Nieuwpoort (30) en Barbara Castelein (29) is Woensdag in die selle van die Booysens-polisiekantoor in Johannesburg aangehou voordat hulle in ’n spesiale WB 2010-hof verskyn het.Hulle word van die oortreding van die Wet op Bemarking en 2010 Fifa-regulasies aangekla, het me. ­Debbie Zin, aanklaer, gesê.Die twee was lede van ’n groep van meer as 30 vroue wat oranje rokkies gedra het wat ’n simbool van ’n advertensieveldtog van die Nederlandse bierbrouery Bavaria is. Die Amerikaanse bier Budweiser is ’n WB-borg en Bavaria word dus as ’n mededinger van Budweiser beskou. Die woord Bavaria verskyn een keer, piepklein, op die rokkies. Die groep het die rokkies tydens Maandag se wedstryd tussen Nederland en Denemarke in Soccer City gedra.Nieuwpoort en Castelein het in ’n verklaring van hul regs­firma, Bowman Gilfillan, gesê hulle wil uit die openbare oog bly, maar oorweeg stappe teen Fifa en die polisie. “Ons verstaan nie hoe dit kon gebeur het nie, veral as die Fifa-beamptes ons heeltyd daarop wys dat ons moontlik tot ses maande tronkstraf gevonnis kan word. Die eerste dae was veral erg – ons moes hoor dat ons nie mag hardloop nie, want ons kan dalk geskiet word!”Die vroue het gesê hulle glo alles sal goed afloop. “Kan jy jou indink ons moet tronk toe gaan omdat ons ’n oranje rok gedra het?”Bowman Gilfillan het in die verklaring gesê die vroue is rustig ondanks die trauma waardeur hulle is.“Woensdag is hul hotelkamer sonder ’n lasbrief deurgesoek en persoonlike artikels geneem. Dié optrede het onder meer hul reg op privaatheid en vryheid van spraak aangetas.”Die vroue oorweeg glo om “by die gepaste instellings” klagte teen Fifa en die polisie in te dien. Die hofverrigtinge is tot 22 Junie uitgestel. Die vroue moes elk R10 000 borgtog betaal, wat Bavaria glo namens hulle gedoen het.

Forgive Boks a bungling day !

Rugby
Forgive Boks a bungling day!

Victor Matfield (Gallo) Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writerCape Town – If South African rugby was in the midst of a dark era, we might have looked at their jaundiced showing against Italy in Witbank on Saturday and shaken our heads in further despondency.But it isn’t, and that has to be kept firmly in mind.You cannot summarily say a team that trounced Six Nations champions France so stirringly only a week earlier has suddenly gone off terminally like a hidden, half-finished can of pilchards at the back of the fridge.Indeed, with significant changes made for the first Test against Sergio Parisse’s gutsy but essentially limited outfit, the home XVs could not really be accurately compared from one weekend to the other anyway.No question: this was a dog’s breakfast of a Springbok showing and in the second half you might even argue that it attracted flies, into the bargain, as raggedness and imprecision infected the ranks with growing vigour.But I, for one, am disinclined to put the boot in. Not yet, anyway – we are entitled to expect an altogether more vibrant and cohesive Bok showing in the East London follow-up next week.Or, as acting captain Victor Matfield put it afterwards at the Puma Stadium: “We must just get the top three inches right.”Yes, it was sobering that the Italians, in only losing by 16 points which means coach Nick Mallett must surrender all his hair courtesy of an in-house challenge, actually dominated possession overall and forced the world champions into making more tackles.But, even at the risk of this sounding disrespectful to the northern hemisphere minnows, it was impossible not to deduce that some involuntary complacency and lethargy crept into the broad Bok mindset for this one.This is, after all, one of those “obligation” mini-series sandwiched unpleasantly between the Super 14 and Tri-Nations when preservation slightly eclipses urgency, no doubt, in the thinking of some seasoned South African players.And speaking of the Super 14, I cannot and will not put to pasture my theory that far too many Bulls and Stormers representatives who competed to the bitter end of that competition have been summoned to Test duty with indecent haste. Read, more accurately: without any rest at all.Some players are being mismanaged and near-exploited, by my book, in defiance of warnings from the sports medicine fraternity.The Witbank game probably only confirmed, in some cases, that while hearts may be willing in defence of the green-and-gold cause, minds and bodies are not exactly brimming with lustre.Bryan Habana was a classic case in point. Still dangerous in bursts as a fine finisher and committed defender, this was a notably split-personality showing from him, with the left wing making an unusual gaffe or two and his focus going AWOL at important moments.Not that Habana was alone in any fumble-fingers characteristic: several others fell prey to it as continuity was a glaring fault for the Boks.They were guilty of failing to manage the “pill” nearly carefully enough at rucks or rolling mauls and the problem was compounded by Ricky Januarie, at scrumhalf, blowing decidedly hot and cold with his passing and general controlling of things. (He was certainly not all bad, his barrage of vocal critics need to be reminded.)No 8 Pierre Spies also had an iffy day at the office, one minute providing a pass that would lead to a score and the next surrendering the ball to the opportunistic Italians frustratingly in contact for so big a specimen.Another negative simply must not be ignored: Butch James, employed first at inside centre and then at flyhalf in the closing stages, earned a stupid yellow card for a trademark high tackle at a time when the Boks were attempting to turn screws, and instead the Italians got a bit of a second wind that actually saw them “win” the second half 10-7.Somebody needs to come down like a ton of bricks on this otherwise solid, versatile customer – if that penchant were to rear its head for him in a really red-letter Springbok game, it could prove much more costly.As Joel Stransky put it in commentary: “His mind disappears (at times) and leaves his body.”There were some bright Bok aspects, like the fact that they were so palpably out-of-synch but nevertheless managed the imaginary “bonus point” for four tries, a couple of them cleverly worked.Zane Kirchner set up one for Habana with a deft grubber off his wrong foot, while the fullback also registered his maiden Test try off Januarie’s final pass on the short side. And Jean de Villiers was reasonably convincing in the outside centre channel.A pleasing aspect of the Bok pack was a mostly forceful showing in the scrums, where Gurthro Steenkamp was all fire and brimstone against Italy’s strongman Martin Castrogiovanni – so much so that the big No 3 was bent back like a swiftly-reversed banana in one and it led to his early exit with apparently damaged ribs.Chiliboy Ralepelle worked honestly in the hooker’s jersey, and he is benefiting, touch wood, from a reasonable stint of injury-free rugby for a change.And Francois Louw continues to build his reputation as an influential combatant on the deck.He is built so intriguingly differently to someone like Heinrich Brussow, presently on the long-term casualty list, but is immensely powerful from his lower legs right through to his shoulders and can, of course, contribute equally comfortably as a barnstorming ball-carrier and adaptable blind-sider if required.Five out of 10, Boks, at best. Try to up it to seven or eight in East London …

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SA kry kitsrugby2010-06-19 23:15

RUDOLPH LAKE IN JOHANNESBURG

Suid-Afrikaanse rugby staan op die drumpel van ’n reuse-verandering met die geboorte van ’n nuwe internasionale kompetisie op plaaslike bodem.Dié kompetisie sal in Januarie 2012 begin en sal gegrond wees op die suksesvolle Indiese Premierliga (IPL)-krieketskouspel.Rugbyliefhebbers sal meer as 200 van die wêreld se voorste rugbyspelers sien kragte meet in Kaapstad en Durban in dié twee stede se nuwe Wêreldbeker-sokkerstadions. Bok-sterre soos John Smit, Victor Matfield, Bryan Habana, Schalk Burger, Jean de Villiers, Juan Smith, Jaque Fourie, Heinrich Brüssow en Bismarck du Plessis, asook All Black-staatmakers soos Richie McCaw en Daniel Carter, die Aussie-yster Phil Waugh en die Wallaby-spelskepper James O’Connor is volgens betroubare bronne van dié uitsoekspelers.Hulle sal oor nagenoeg drie weke in die beoogde rugbyskouspel speel en daardeur miljoene rande verdien.Tientalle sterre van Engeland, Frankryk en Argentinië sal ook deelneem.Die geld wat spelers in die nuwe kompetisie kan verdien kan moontlik meer beloop as die totale waarde van hul huidige jaarlikse kontrakte by hul onderskeie unies en spanne regoor die wêreld.Die gewese Springbok-flank Rassie Erasmus en die Kaapse prokureur Frikkie Erasmus is deel van die konsortium wat die nuwe kitsrugby-kompetisie sal bestuur. Die Suid-Afrikaanse Rugbyunie (Saru) het reeds die kompetisie bespreek en dit in beginsel goedgekeur. Hoë amptenare van Saru is van mening dat die kompetisie nuwe lewe in die spel kan blaas. Die ontwikkeling van die spel sal plaaslike rugby geldelik bevoordeel deurdat ’n gedeelte van die inkomste uit die kompetisie aan Saru en rugby-provinsies geskenk sal word om rugby te bevorder.Die formaat en reëls van die nuwe kompetisie, wat straks as die International Super Rugby-reeks bekend sal staan, is tans ’n groot geheim.Tog kan Sport24 onthul dat die planne vir die kompetisie vir agt verskillende spanne voorsiening maak wat op ’n rondomtalie-grondslag teen mekaar sal meeding.Die topvier-spanne sal in twee halfeindstryde kragte meet, met die wenners wat in ’n eindstryd om groot prysgeld sal meeding.Geskoei op krieket se IPL-reeks sal ’n wedstryd uit twee helftes van 20 minute elk bestaan. Al agt spanne sal op dieselfde dag op dieselfde veld agtereenvolgens in verskillende kragmetings in aksie wees.Die deelnemende spanne sal as franchises aan sakelui verkoop word. Dié eienaars sal hul spanne saamstel uit die beskikbare kandidate wat op ’n veiling aan die hoogste bod verkoop sal word. Dít sal dan ’n mengsel van nasionaliteite meebring – Kiwi, Bok en Aussie kan byvoorbeeld dan in één span teen hul landgenoot-sterre in die ander spanne meeding.Om te verseker dat toeskouers aan vinnige en skouspelagtige aksie blootgestel word, sal enkele van die Internasionale Rugbyraad (IRR) se rugbyreëls gewysig word.Die doelwit is om die spel vinniger te maak en onderbrekings en vertragings tot die absolute minimum te beperk.Al die reëlveranderings is nog nie afgehandel nie, maar volgens inligting sal daar sekere beperkings op die skop van die bal geplaas word.Reëls rondom probleemareas soos die afbreekpunte en skrums sal na verwagting ook aangepas word om die vloei van die spel vinnig te hou.Die uitsaairegte van die nuwe kompetisie is nog nie verkoop nie, maar internasionale en Suid-Afrikaanse TV-maatskappye is gretig om dit op te raap.

Fratsongeluk eis SA sportlegende

Fratsongeluk eis SA sportlegende
2010-06-18 12:01


Johannesburg - Die Dusi-koning, Graeme Pope-Ellis, wat die Dusi-kanomarathon 15 keer gewen het, is in 'n ongeluk op sy plaas in Pietermaritzburg dood, het die Dusi-reëlingskomitee Vrydag gesê.

Pope-Ellis (62) het ploegwerk met sy trekker gedoen toe die trekke oor hom gerol het.

"Ons is absoluut verpletter deur die nuus. Graeme was 'n Suid-Afrikaanse sportikoon," het Ray de Vries, Dusi-woordvoerder, gesê.

"Ek was verlede week saam met hom toe hy aan The Unlimited Dusi Mfula bergfietsgeleentheid deelgeneem het en hy het gesê hoe baie hy dit geniet."

Pope-Ellis word oorleef deur sy vrou, Wendy, en hul dogter, Leigh.




- SAPA

Sexy rokkies het vroue in sop

Sexy rokkies het vroue in sop

2010-06-17 00:12


Mee. Barbara Castelein en Mirte Nieuwpoort eergister buite Soccer City in die rokkies wat die herrie veroorsaak het. Hulle is gister in hegtenis geneem.Foto: ap
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Daniëlla du Plooy
Johannesburg
Twee van die Nederlandse vroue wat in skrapse oranje Bavaria-rokkies – ’n bierhandelsmerk wat nié ’n amptelike borg van die Wêreldbeker-sokkertoernooi is nie – by ’n sokkerwedstryd opgedaag het, is voor die hof gesleep.
Hulle het eers gisteroggend by ’n polisiekantoor deurgebring voordat hulle in die Johannesburgse landdroshof verskyn het.
Dít ten spyte van Fifa se ontkenning dat die vroue aangekla word.
Die vroue moes elk R10000 borgtog betaal om vrygelaat te word, wat Bavaria glo namens hulle gedoen het.
Die blonde mee. Mirte Nieuwpoort (30) en Barbara Castelein (29) was deel van ’n groep van meer as 30 vroue wat sexy oranje rokkies gedra het tydens Maandag se wedstryd in Soccer City tussen Nederland en Denemarke.
Die polisie het die twee gisteroggend douvoordag wakker gemaak en aangehou.
Hul uitrustings is ’n simbool van ’n advertensieveldtog van die Nederlandse brouery Bavaria, berig Retha Grobbelaar.
Die Amerikaanse bier Budweiser is ’n borg van die sokkertoernooi en Bavaria word dus as ’n mededinger vir Budweiser beskou.
Fifa maak miljarde rande uit sy bemarkingsprogram en het daarom baie streng reëls daaroor. Die reëls beskerm amptelike borge se reg om hul verbintenis met die toernooi vir reklame-doeleindes te gebruik.
Ander maatskappye wat die indruk probeer skep dat hulle iets met die WB-toernooi te make het, word deur Fifa as “hindernisbemarkers” bestempel.
Mnr. Nicolas Maingot, Fifa-woordvoerder, het gesê die Suid-Afrikaanse polisie ondersoek ’n saak teen die betrokke maatskappy.
“Fifa het ’n span kenners wat na hindernis-bemarking kyk. Hulle trek die streep oor wat hindernisbemarking is en wat net iemand is wat ’n T-hemp aan het met ’n handelsmerk op,” het hy vroeër gesê.
Hoewel Fifa gesê het geen klagte is teen die vroue aanhangig gemaak nie, het hulle gister vlugtig in die Johannesburgse landdroshof (in ’n spesiale tydelike WB 2010-hof) verskyn.
Die saak is tot 22 Junie uitgestel.
Me. Debbie Zin, staatsaanklaer, het gesê die vroue word aangekla van ’n oortreding van die Wet op Bemarking en 2010 Fifa-regulasies.
Leopoldt Scholtz berig die Nederlandse regering het gister amptelik teen die vroue se aanhouding beswaar gemaak en sou selfs gister by Suid-Afrika se ambassadeur daaroor kla.
Die hele affêre het groot aandag in die Nederlandse media getrek en al wat ’n koerant, televisie- of radiostasie is, het uitgebreid aandag daaraan gegee.
Die twee meisies word ook op konsulêre vlak in Johannesburg bygestaan, luidens die verklaring.
- Die Burger

Robbers shoot at KZN campers

Robbers shoot at KZN campers

2010-06-17 09:02
A bullet hole in one of the caravans that was shot at during a robbery at a KwaZulu-Natal campsite. (Willie Maartens, Beeld)
Daniëlla du Plooy, Beeld
Johannesburg - A group of Gauteng holidaymakers woke up to the sound of shots on Tuesday night when robbers fired at their caravans at a camp site on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast. A security guard was shot in the leg and the robbers got away with cellphones, cameras and thousands of rands.Willie Maartens, 40, from Roodepoort, said he and family members had been camping in three caravans and several tents at Gwalagwala camp site in the St Lucia Wetland Park since Saturday.The three families were sleeping when gunshots woke them up at about 00:15 on Wednesday morning.Caravan 'riddled'"The (bullets) pierced our caravans. The guards found the robbers while they were looting our cars and a gunfight ensued."It is believed there were three robbers.Maartens said it was only by the grace of God that no-one in his family was hurt or killed."If some of the people had been lying asleep on the other side of their caravan, they would have been killed. The caravans were riddled (with bullets)."It is terrible to have something like this happen when you really only want to relax and get away from it all."They also found cartridges in the tent where some of the children were sleeping."The children are upset but I think their mothers are even more traumatised."The robbers presumably broke into some of the caravans, stole car keys and then started to steal from the cars.This was when the camp's two security guards found them.Upset and shockedCamp manager, Thulani Bruce Mbonambi, confirmed the incident.He said the security guard's ankle was broken by the impact of the bullet, but he was out of danger and in a local hospital.Mbonambi said he had worked at the resort since 1999."Something like this has never happened here. Burglaries and theft, yes, but it is the first time that there has been shooting. I am upset and shocked."Maartens said police arrived quickly after the incident.The group decided not to end their holiday. "This is South Africa after all!" Maartens jokingly said on Wednesday."Where else would we go? It's not as if we are safer at home!"A police spokesperson could not be reached for comment on Wednesday night.
- Beeld
Read more on: crime durban

Sepp Blatter's Great FIFA ripoff Circus

Sepp Blatter's Great FIFA ripoff Circus Issue # 127 May, 2010

“Ohmigod – they’re here, in the lobby, with their nasty questions,” panicked FIFA’s general secretary. Confident Sepp Blatter took charge. “Point them to the boardroom, spread them around that huge table so they can’t gang up on us. Take your tie off, look relaxed – and rumple your hair, man.”
And so Herr Blatter and the equally immaculate Jérôme Valcke ripped off their ties, glued warm smiles on their faces and bamboozled 20 foreign reporters into believing that the tickets disaster overwhelming the World Cup in South Africa was the responsibility of somebody, anybody – but not them.
That’s how it looked from the outside. The Almighty Blatter banned me from his press conferences seven years ago, so I have to work from the posed photos of the tieless tousled duo, FIFA’s delusional press release, the uncritical reporting of the 20 handpicked notebooks – and truths in the wider world. I had feared “the elephants” would be ignored. They were.
The meeting with the press was scripted as a matey “media round-table”, implying it was tasteless to pose the questions that should be asked about the problems FIFA have created for the upcoming tournament. In the end Blatter got away with a bland press release that he had “discussed with journalists the latest on football’s showpiece event”.
Blatter and Valcke would have been even happier reading the next day’s papers. More tickets to be dumped in the laps of poor Africans. Poor FIFA will take a hit (they claim), but no mention of yet another blow to the ever-swelling budget – the burden of South African taxpayers. And that was about it. Innocuous reports emailed back to office.
Invisible to the hacks in the FIFA boardroom – so never mentioned in their reports – were three massive monsters, their grey slab backs crushed against the ceiling, their waving trunks casting shadows over the happy gathering.
Two of these elephants, the Mexican brothers Jaime and Enrique Byrom, have been given the exclusive rights to sell World Cup tickets. You’d think that with hundreds of thousands of tickets unsold the hacks would have questions about why the Brothers repeatedly get this business.
The third partner in that jungle trio is a young fellow with an uncanny resemblance to FIFA’s president. That is not a coincidence. Philippe Blatter, the nephew, partners the two Brothers in MATCH, the company with a lock on the corporate hospitality business. They’ve 380,000 precious tickets to sell for top dollar. What a small world is the business of FIFA.
If that’s not troubling enough, pay a visit to the home of Philippe’s Infront company, in the Swiss city of Zug. The lofty glass and steel modern offices formerly housed the ISL sports marketing company. ISL had contracts similar to the ones Philippe also enjoys, minting money by selling half the World Cup television rights to eager broadcasters.
What happened to ISL? They paid $100m in bribes to FIFA and other sports officials for similar television and marketing rights, and collapsed in debt. From Philippe Blatter’s window he sees – 100 metres away – the Zug office of the magistrate investigating who got those bribes. The man who paid them is a close friend of Uncle Sepp.
FIFA’s handout later that day was headed “The fans are our priority”, and that was the end of it. Game, extra time and MATCH to the tousled tieless.
In the boardroom general secretary Valcke had mentioned that MATCH’s high-priced corporate packages were selling slowly. Shortly afterwards the grisly truth was revealed to a South African parliamentary committee. MATCH, whose prices suggest they didn’t notice when the lights went out at Lehman Bros bank, have been significantly abandoned by the corporate world.
Jaime, Enrique and Blatter junior have sold 148,000 hospitality tickets but have a massive 194,000 left on the shelf. Overall, how many tickets are unsold and will likely have to be given away? No figure can be believed because there’s sacks of them stuck with the Elephants’ agents and listed as “sold” – but aren’t. The truth is: probably in excess of 800,000. The most devastating number reflects that, of the 660,000 allocated to diehard fans of the 32 finalists, only 185,000 have been snapped up.
It’s hard to see all the marquees in those magnificent “Hospitality Villages” alongside the stadiums, illustrated in the MATCH brochure, ever being built. Legions of suppliers, chefs and waitresses will be sent away because Blatter’s cronies thought they could bleed the fans during a global economic recession.
When the Bros set up their 2010 FIFA-approved ticket business, travel agents paid $30,000 to enter the ring and guarantee to pay more for a range of games. The result: a daily stream of emails spinning around the planet sent by agents trying to unload unwanted tickets on each other.
Now the Bros, desperate to empty their warehouses of inventory, have created their own parallel black market. Anyone – you, me, the bloke over there in the corner of the bar – could cough up $30,000, become a “sponsor” of a national association and buy tickets with a face value of nearly $80,000.The smart guys jumped in, got their tickets, chucked away Honduras v Chile at Mbombela stadium, and any similar games, and packaged the better tickets with flights and rooms. (Nelspruit’s Mbombela stadium cost roughly R1bn, and will stage four forgettable round one games over 11 days – and then itself be forgotten.)
Soon hotels may be paying visitors to take rooms. A German travel agent says the Bros and Blatter Jnr and their MATCH company are quietly offering four-star hotels for one-star prices. “It’s a huge dump,” they told me. This agent and their rivals are themselves now big in the dumping business, jettisoning thousands of reserved hotel nights and hundreds of flights.
This hasn’t stopped FIFA’s expensive lawyers chasing South Africans with a sense of humour. The Kulula no-frills airline produced an ad claiming to be “The Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What”.
Wham! In roared FIFA’s thought police, screaming that sponsors were being ambushed and threatening vast financial penalties for illustrating the ad with soccer balls, a player, a Cape Town stadium, the national flag and the dread words “South Africa”.
Days later the airline posted a new ad, headlined “Not next year, not last year, but somewhere in between”. The player had lost his balls and was barefoot, the stadium was unidentifiable.
Why Blatter’s anger? MATCH is charging clients a stupendous $755 for return flights across the country to games. Kulula, charging between $140 and $196, had to be suppressed.
Another number being suppressed is how much Blatter trousers every year. FIFA have just produced its annual report and, as is their custom, refuse to follow best international practice and reveal individual remuneration of those at the top of the organisation.
They won’t disclose expenses and per diems claimed by the 24-member executive committee – but be sure they are huge, and often unjustified. The only figure worth knowing is that after only eight years on the ruling body members get a pension. Last year $12m was put aside for this.
A week ago Blatter revealed how he intends to prevent bribery in the contests to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022. His brilliant idea has amused the brigade of reporters, consultants, strategists, launderers, spooks, ex-spooks, criminals and charlatans who discuss little else but which of the two dozen voters will pocket bribes, who will pay them and the routes the money will take. The president’s answer? His ethics committee will send a strict letter to the bidders.
If anybody defies him they risk... not very much. FIFA’s toothless ethics enforcers, who have no ability to monitor bidders, no police and no investigative powers are the guarantee of fat city and offshore bank accounts.
But even as the crisis of unsold tickets and unbooked facilities deepened, Blatter had more important things to do, as he manoeuvers to defeat the challenge to his presidency expected next year from Asian football leaders. Blatter turned up in Saudi Arabia – whose “generosity” in football politics is legendary – announcing: “I know very well that the best way to win Arab support for my candidature is to come to Saudi Arabia.”
ROLL UP, ROLL UP!
Will billions of Rands’ worth of 2010 World Cup stadia be filled mainly by South Africans? If so, it will make nonsense of those original promises (which it was deemed “unpatriotic” or “anti-African” to question) that decades of debt would be offset by the World Cup attracting hordes of dollar- and euro-spending soccer fans and tourists.
And if those bearers of our good fortune aren’t coming, it has an awful lot to do with MATCH Hospitality doing its best to temporarily turn South Africa into the most expensive travel destination in the world.
As Fifa’s “worldwide exclusive rights holder of the official hospitality programme”, MATCH has set absurdly high prices for travel and bed and board. European soccer fans booking their trip through FIFA/MATCH accredited agents stand to pay up to ten times what they’d normally expect to fork out when visiting the country.
Other “scare factors” (left to your imagination) are obviously involved, but the FIFA/MATCH hyper-inflation of costs has doubtlessly led to the present situation where ticket sales are a fraction of those projected, and which is having devastating consequences for the local small-scale hospitality industry.
On 11 January, selected overseas travel agents (plus one, unnamed, from Africa) attending a MATCH Hospitality sales agents workshop in Zurich (at FIFA headquarters) were handed a fat document detailing every aspect of handling the needs and wants of travellers to the 2010 World Cup.
The price of four star accommodation, was set at $325-$800 (R2,376 – R5,849) per night’s stay. This is accommodation that would normally cost you R500 to R1000 per night.
While Sun International and its like are not affected (Sun reports that its rooms are fully booked for the period), small operators have been left high and dry – including people who upgraded their self-catering or B&B accommodation to meet MATCH Hospitality’s requirements, in order to be listed on the MATCH website. Many of these in the Cape Town area have now learned, to their horror, that all deals and bookings have been cancelled.
Andre du Toit of Somerset West, who as late as March was assured of 78% occupancy, last month received an email from MATCH cancelling all bookings, and recommending that he do his own marketing. Noseweek contacted twenty other operators in the Somerset West area alone – all had received similar emails.
FIFA, as the likes of Andrew Jennings (see main story) have warned, plays the game according to its own rules, and their game is about making money, money and more money. FIFA’s own profits are guaranteed through sale of TV broadcast rights ($623m); marketing rights ($277m); hospitality rights ($41m); licensing rights ($10).
So if you’re wondering why FIFA, despite all its high-tech infrastructure, was “unable” to disclose exactly how many tickets were still available on 15 April, when public ticket sales were launched, just think sales pitch: “Rush out and buy, or you’ll be left out.” Or would FIFA have other reasons for not disclosing the exact number of available tickets? One expert’s guess is that the number of unsold tickets (as at 15 April) is at least one million.
THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN & THEIR FLYING MACHINES
Welcome to sunny South Africa, “but kindly make all payments to Zurich”.
The recent excitement about the cost of domestic flights over the World Cup period, and alleged price-fixing collusion between SAA and British Airways/Comair hid the main issue: the overseas bullies behind the price inflation itself. It was MATCH Hospitality that set a fixed price of $755 (R5,520) for its accredited carriers, for all domestic flights during the 2010 World Cup.
As for the recent Kulula spat: Comair as the holding company for both British Airways and Kulula, avoided putting all its eggs in one basket, by signing for MATCH seats on BA flights, and not on budget Kulula. But as regular Kululans know, a Kulula ticket often puts you on a BA flight. Comair’s refusal to sign both their airlines to FIFA/MATCH, must have been the irritant that prompted FIFA to send Kulula that legal letter demanding the airline withdraw its ad announcing themselves as the “unofficial national carrier of you-know-what”.

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Foreign fan numbers 'promising'Jun 16 2010 12:36 Print this article Email article
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Johannesburg - About 110 000 foreign visitors came to South Africa for the opening days of the World Cup, organisers said Wednesday, with a similar number of South Africans also returning from overseas.
Foreign arrivals were up by about one third compared to the first part of June last year, with the increase believed to be largely World Cup fans, said Rich Mkhondo, spokesperson for the local organising committee.
A total of 456 000 foreigners visited the country from June 1 to 13, up from about 345 000 during the same period last year, Mkhondo told a press conference.
"This increase for 2010 can be clearly attributed to the FIFA World Cup," he said.
The home affairs ministry also indicated that a large number of South Africans returned from overseas for the games.
About 140 000 additional South Africans entered the country compared to the same period in June last year, it said in a statement.
The ministry said arrivals were expected to keep rising as the tournament continues.
"We are quite sure that this figure will continue increasing as the World Cup progresses," it said.
South Africa expects a total of 300 000 foreign visitors during the four-week tournament, down from an initial forecast of 450 000.
- AFP