Long road to bringing the World Cup to Africa
Oliphant recalls all the effort it took
When Molefi Oliphant remembers the 2010 World Cup, memories that flood his mind are not necessarily those of Siphiwe Tshabalala’s stunning goal in the opening match or of that Andres Iniesta’s strike, which helped Spain lift the trophy.
Granted, like everyone else, the former SA Football Association (Safa) president rates those as highlights from that monthlong global soccer extravaganza South Africa hosted.
But in the past month when the whole country, and indeed the world, reflected on the first World Cup played on African soil a decade ago, Oliphant’s mind was filled with all that it took for that great event to materialise.
He says: “For me, 2010 was all about proof of that great saying by Napoleon that ‘what the mind of man can conceive, can be done’. That we hosted the World Cup was proof of the resilience of us South Africans. It showed that this country is made up of people who, when they believe in something, they go for it and nothing stops them from achieving it.”
“Oli”, as the erstwhile school principal was fondly referred to in the game he served for many years, remembers vividly when the World Cup seed was planted.
“We were at the 1994 World Cup in the USA sitting at the Ritz Hotel when the late former Safa president Stix Morewa said to us [myself, Kaizer Motaung and the late John Lane], ‘guys, I think we can do this thing at home. We have … all the facilities to do this.”
On their return, Morewa wrote to Fifa indicating Safa’s keenness to host the event. “Nothing came of it but then in 1997 at a Safa bosberaad, when I was the president after the Pickard Commission had seen to the ousting of Stix, the idea was raised again. We then took a resolution to appoint a two-man committee of Irvin Khoza and Danny Jordaan, with myself as an ex-officio member to explore what it would take to host the event.”
Safa then wrote to Fifa about their intention to host the 2006 World Cup.
“We unfortunately lost that bid by one vote due to an abstention [New Zealand’s Charles Dempsey did not vote despite having been instructed by his association to vote for South Africa] and we considered taking the matter to court only for Sepp Blatter to talk us out of it.
“But we made it clear that we needed the truth and justice. In our discussions, we ended up making Fifa go the rotation route in terms of the hosting of the World Cup, and Africa were next in line for 2010.”
Oliphant remembers how they remained convinced South Africa was good enough to host the World Cup despite losing the 2006 bid.
“We lost on a technicality to Germany and the fact that we had beaten England told us we were good enough. So we were not discouraged. We went back to working on bidding for 2010, which we duly won,” he recalls.
“I sit here today and look back at what happened in 2010 and smile from the good memories of that great event. But for me, 2010 was more about the culmination of an idea bred back in 1994.
“It showed that when people work hard and they have support, because we got incredible support from our government, then whatever they believe in is possible.
“No doubt that opening goal by Tshabalala was a great highlight. But having been involved from the onset is what I cherish the most about the World Cup.”