Sports like the World Cup are politics with a handsome young face, but behind the mask are the same ugly old guys, says Gamal Nkrumah t was the late Caribbean Pan-Africanist writer CLR James who pointed out that among the poor and disadvantaged "a youngsters' only capital is his/her body." In the context of the poor, the powerful athletic bodies of players become their tickets and conduits to greener pastures in the pitches and playgrounds of the Western nations. The roots of the debacle developing countries find themselves in go deeper, stemming from their dependence on an international economic and financial system that innately works against their interests. It is a sign of the Zeitgeist that the World Cup is being staged for the first time on the African continent. And, it is no surprise that the country of choice for the tournament was South Africa -- that choice was perfectly predictable. It is both first world and third world in one Rainbow nation. South Africa is a country where the legacy of the apartheid system has created a huge gulf between rich and poor, developed and underdeveloped, white and black. Political apartheid might have gone forever, but economic deprivation in the sprawling black townships surrounding South African cities continues unabated. The affluent northern suburbs of cities like Johannesburg and Pretoria today resemble, much as they did in the apartheid period, the cities and suburbia of North America, Europe and Australia. It is these speckles of suburbia in the vast swathes of impoverished black South Africa that the football players, the paparazzi and the fans will see. They are most likely not going to see the darker side of the country with its grinding poverty, malnutrition, deplorable social conditions, high crime rates and the world's highest incidence of HIV/AIDs. As the hours grind on, the tricks and treats of the World Cup tournament unfolds, teams wins and teams lose and the fidgeting Wives and Girlfriends (WAGs) of the superstars in their luxurious suites tag along, screening the shopping malls of South Africa's cities for goodies. That, too, is politics. Yet it is plain that the politicians in South Africa are poised to make the most of hosting the World Cup. Why and how did South Africa complete its World Cup stadiums ahead of schedule? Was it to prove a point perhaps? The country's townships' crushing poverty is not on parade. Whatever the reason, the role of sports in politics has not waned. The curio shops will cater for the WAGs, the paparazzi and the fans. The South African economy will no doubt benefit from the shopping sprees of the WAGs, but will that be enough to alleviate the long-term chronic crisis of poverty in the townships? Surprisingly South Africa has time. Still, the pace of infrastructural development will be propelled forward by the razzmatazz. South Africa hopes that staging the World Cup will help alleviate the aftereffects of the economic downturn. South Africa, after all, was hard hit by the fall in commodity prices. However, what about the hangover that may yet follow the hullabaloo? To understand the scale of the damage wrought by the apartheid system is to sympathise with the black cause in South Africa. The stark contrast between life in the wealthy West and the shantytowns of the underdeveloped South is played out in South Africa on a grand scale. The relationship between white and black, in spite of the official ending of apartheid, is still rather tense. It is a relationship that leaves a lot to be desired especially from the perspective of the poor. The pressure will intensify in the months ahead to remedy the situation as South African President Jacob Zuma rallies his compatriots to the cause of social justice. The Beautiful Game will only intensify feelings of frustration among the disadvantaged. This seething anger will be played out as much in the dusty townships as in the gleaming stadiums. The days when apartheid South Africa was kicked out of FIFA are long gone. It is commonly stated of South Africa that everyone knew what had to be done. This is a thesis rather devoid of merit. First, the South Africans are acutely aware of their predicaments. The second reason for prevarication is South Africa's challenges are not as easy to overcome as commonly supposed. As the hours and days grind on, we shall soon learn which nation will win the World Cup. Will it be a developing country like Brazil, a country with people overwhelmingly of colour? Or, will it be a predominantly white, wealthy and Western nation like Germany. In no other such tournament has the politics of race and class played out on the pitch been viewed with such intenseness. The allegory is clear, the analogy understandable. This brings to mind the Negro Baseball Leagues in America of yesteryear. In 1908, Jack Johnson, an African American boxer, beat Tommy Burns, a white American boxer. It was the first recorded high-profile interracial boxing match in the history of America. Before that historic match, blacks and whites fought separately and so it was in South Africa. Race, ethnic identity, language and nationality have all historically played a not inconsiderable part in the world of sports. The staging of the World Cup in South Africa this year is a reminder that all that upfront racism is behind us now. The media circus enveloping the World Cup cannot hide that fact. Those sad days seem so far away today, but they are far from irrelevant. Avery Brundage, head of IOC at the time, turned out to be the owner of a country club that forbade membership to blacks. With mounting international pressure, the IOC withdrew its initial invitation to South Africa to participate in the 1968 Olympics, setting a precedent for the barring of apartheid South Africa from sports games. Can the same be done as far as Israel is concerned today? Puns galore and surprise endings are sure to crop up at the end of this year's World Cup. That puts puns ahead of the Beautiful Game. The joke is on the nation, and not the audience. South Africa is under intense pressure to prove that the Rainbow nation works, and that it works meticulously. The audience has to make the connection, giving them a sense of delight, even pride. Public opinion is contemptuous of the charade. Such sorting of wheat from chaff, black and white, poor and rich, runs contrary to what post-apartheid South Africa portends to portray. Traditional practice suggests that white and wealthy will win, even on the black continent. Germany, perhaps, rather than Brazil. But more important than the immediate effect are the long- term repercussions of such a triumph. Will it mean that more African players will leave the continent to play in Western football clubs? Will it propel more African youngsters to risk their lives in search of better prospects in the West? This sad legacy of colonialism is a veritable industry these days, with settler-colonialist par excellence Israel jockeying with the big league imperialists for the best prospective talents. A scandalous example is the case of the budding athlete John Pentsil from Ghana, who was recruited by the Tel Aviv Hapoel team, whisked off to apartheid Israel to train, and in naïve gratitude to his sponsors, flaunted an Israeli flag when the Ghanaian national team beat the Czech Republic 2-0 in 2006. Almost half the Ghanaian population are Muslims and both they and their coreligionists in the Arab League were furious, forcing the Ghanaian government to formally apologise to the League, though ex-sports minister Ofir Pines-Paz was unrepentant, expressing support for Pentsil and the "many new Israeli fans of Ghana". This instance epitomises the way sports can "transcend politics" in a most perverse way. Or better put, popular sports is political no matter what and we should not be fooled into thinking otherwise. While the Ghanaian government realised the negative fallout from a negatively politicised use of sports, the sports minister was only interested in promoting young Ghanaian talent without the need for the government to use its own resources. It is sad when a country like Ghana is forced to rely on unscrupulous Israeli businessmen to find and train its brightest and best. South Africa's hosting of the World Cup is just as perversely political, draining resources from projects to eradicate poverty, giving a false sense of well-being to the fractured nation, leaving it prey to further escalation of the country's problems after the first world crowds have gone home and the football hangover sets in. The politics of sports is not quite the same as it used to be. In 1968, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) initially invited apartheid South Africa's sports team to the 1968 Olympics but growing world revulsion forced the IOC to hastily withdraw its invitation, setting a precedent for the barring of apartheid South Africa from sports games. There is still no movement to ban apartheid Israel from either the Olympics or the World Cup. But already, Israel is forced to play with European teams in the World Cup qualifying rounds, as no Arab or Muslim Asian teams will share the field with the Zionists. There is no question that the world's revulsion with the new apartheid standard- bearers is growing. Pray, will the next World Cup be sans the Zionists?
