Sobering account of a glorious but flawed event

EVEN before the opening match of the 2010 World Cup, staged in South Africa with such joy and pride, there were stories about corruption around stadium tenders.

Yet as national fervour grew, it became almost treasonous for the media to question the World Cup or Fifa. The then editor of the Sunday Times was Ray Hartley, who vowed to tell the full story of this glorious but flawed event.

After losing the 2006 bid to Germany, South Africa was determined to win in 2010. Dragging Nelson Mandela out of retirement for meetand-greet photo opportunities was never going to be enough. Dirty money was the secret ingredient and in the 2015 Fifa indictment, a section described how South Africa had bribed its way to hosting the tournament.

Equally nefarious, as Hartley records, were the friendly matches played by Bafana Bafana before the tournament. These were fixed by referees on the payroll of an Asian betting syndicate. The Hawks would later mount a half-hearted investigation, but not a single criminal charge has resulted.

The corruption around the new stadiums has had the most enduring financial consequences. Neither Durban nor Cape Town proposed new stadiums. Each city planned to upgrade existing facilities: Kings Park (at R54 million) and Newlands. Fifa scorned such modesty by a developing nation. Both cities were dragooned into building new stadiums.

Showpieces they may be today, but as with those in other cities, they remain a drain on ratepayers.

Years later, 15 companies admitted to collusive tendering, by which the construction tenders were rigged: the cost of the 10 new stadiums soared to R11.7 billion. The Competition Tribunal would eventually fine the construction companies R1.45 billion.

Most of what Hartley describes in his book has already been exposed, including the disgrace and banning for six years of Fifa’s head, Sepp Blatter.

The Big Fix, however, has brought together the various aspects of the dark side of the 2010 World Cup in a single readable account, which sadly reveals that the ultimate legacy of that tournament is not what we as a nation had hoped for.

A few days after the final game, the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, warned that the euphoria wasn’t going to last for ever.

Indeed it hasn’t. Reality has tarnished the glow. At best it was fool’s gold.