2010: Now for the final countdown

Five years have passed since that extraordinary moment in Zurich when Fifa President Sepp Blatter declared that South Africa had earned the rights to host the biggest party on the planet.

And with exactly one year remaining before the kick-off of the quadrennial showpiece of international soccer, South Africa can rightfully stake its claim as being the centre of the universe.

Of all the challenges and obstacles that have so far been overcome, the biggest has certainly been international perceptions of South Africa and, indeed, the rest of the continent.

Rampant crime, an Aids pandemic, political instability and xenophobia provided plenty of ammunition for a hostile media and millions of Afro-pessimists around the world.

And yet, like the miracle of 1994, South Africa has confronted many of its challenges head-on.

Paul Bannister, acting CEO of SA’s International Marketing Council, said he believes the country has turned the corner “after 18 very challenging months, with concerns over Polokwane, the Eskom outages, Jacob Zuma’s legal issues and Zimbabwe”.

Wadim Schreiner, the managing director of international media research company Media Tenor says foreign media coverage of South Africa has “completely turned around” since March. “The Germans just can’t believe that this World Cup is actually going to happen. They are now reporting that we are more or less on time, but there’s always a hint of disbelief.”

The reality is South Africa continues to meet its 2010 targets and public perceptions of the country’s ability to host a successful tournament have now reached record highs.

As France (1998), co-hosts Japan and South Korea (2002) and Germany (2006) all proved, the success of the host nation is critical to the success of a tournament of this magnitude. As a result, we can all be very grateful that Bafana Bafana, who have floundered for so long, are now showing signs of peaking at the right time.

Under Brazilians Carlos Parreira and his successor Joel Santana the team has shown flashes of brilliance and last weekend’s impressive victory against Poland was the perfect launch for South Africa’s Confederations Cup campaign.

A year before the previous edition of the World Cup, Germany was seriously divided, but that tournament provided the glue that united the nation in a sea of black, yellow and red. The reality is South Africa could also be on the brink of a 2010-induced revolution that could change international perceptions of the country for decades to come.