Soccer: Africa gets noticed

It is something of a triumph that the biggest talking point at the Confederations Cup is a long, plastic, colourful instrument.

The vuvuzela is an annoying horn which sounds like a swarm of angry bees being prodded by needles for 90 minutes.

Some say its origins come from a tribal instrument blown to summon villagers to important meetings or war. Others say it originates in a plastics factory in China.

Whatever the truth, they're irritating and Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso said: "I think they should be banned. They are a distraction and do nothing for the atmosphere."

They won't be banned. "It's a local sound and I don't know how it's possible to stop it," Fifa president Sepp Blatter said.

"It's noisy, it's energy, rhythm, music, dance, drums. This is Africa. We have to adapt a little."

Blatter would never be critical of Africa. Bringing the World Cup to the world's second-largest continent for the first time was his idea and he is desperate for it to be a success.

His chances of re-election in 2011 and of being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize - which he is said to crave - depend on it.

The vuvuzela isn't the only concern but it has, quite conveniently, drawn most discussion and papered over many of the problems ahead of next year's World Cup.

The Confederations Cup is a vastly watered-down version of the Main Event, with only eight countries. Problems will be amplified when an expected 450,000 fans descend on South Africa in 12 months.

It's inevitable it will be compared to Germany, when two million converged on the 2006 World Cup, but it is unfair and unrealistic to expect the same standards off the field.

South Africa is much further away from Germany than 9500km and Charlie Dempsey did South Africa a favour when his abstention gave them four more years to get ready.

Even then, they might only just make it and, at numerous times since 2004 when they were awarded the world's biggest event, they have been given the order to get their act together.

The stadiums will be fine - the 95,000-seat Soccer City stadium being built overlooking Soweto for the final looks superb - and training facilities top-notch. But the Confederations Cup has thrown up myriad issues around security, logistics, accommodation, crowd numbers and transport.

The park-and-ride transport system has been problematic, with chaotic scenes and long waits for buses common.

It is also very difficult to get around on a public transport system that hasn't had much investment since the end of apartheid in 1994.

About $330 million is being spent on upgrading the Metrorail and Shosholoza Meyl (long-distance rail) train systems with the introduction of 1900 new coaches and another $270 million is being spent by two bus companies to purchase 570 new buses to ferry around fans. Many roads are also still being constructed.

"We know that not everything has worked perfectly," Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke said of the Confederations Cup.

"The system needs to be reworked for both the press and fans, especially as there will be a lot more visitors here during the World Cup."

More visitors means more potential problems, especially around security. South Africa is a dangerous country with as many as 50 murders a day and, despite the presence of 8000 police and even more security staff during the Confederations Cup, both the Egyptian and Brazilian teams were burgled during the tournament.

Local organising committee head Danny Jordaan has said $215 million has been committed to increase the police force, reported to be 32,000 strong, for the World Cup. Another 50,000 people will be employed to help with things like traffic and disaster management.

They will need to be well trained because at times during the Confederations Cup security was slack.

The New Zealand team convoy was infiltrated by an apparently drunk driver and it took several minutes for the police to react and ram him off the road, but not before the joy rider had weaved his way through the convoy to be in front of the team bus.

I also managed to walk into Spanish training without any accreditation (when I went to pick it up, I was dumbfounded to be told to come back the following day because it was a non-accreditation day, even though it was only two days before the tournament's kickoff) and found myself in the players' tunnel walking beside, among others, Fernando Torres, Cesc Fabregas, Carles Puyol and Iker Casillas.

In hindsight, I would have done the All Whites a great service if I had taken out Torres, who scored a hat-trick inside 17 minutes against New Zealand.

Only 21,649 were there to watch that game with Spain in Rustenburg and the local king bought 10,000 tickets to boost numbers for New Zealand's second game against hosts South Africa.

Crowd sizes have been an issue and, while they will be multiplied for the World Cup by travelling fans, Blatter has reportedly told organisers that half-empty stadiums will be "unacceptable" next year.

It remains to be seen whether accommodation services will be able to handle the influx.

Fifa acknowledge they are still 15,000 rooms short of the 55,000 needed for the World Cup.

There's no doubt South Africa will host next year's World Cup, and it will probably be announced as a success, but it's hard to see it running entirely smoothly.

And the least of the problems will be the noisy vuvuzelas.