Been watching the 2009 Confederations Cup?
Noticed anything?
If you're an astute observer, you've probably noticed the abundance of empty seats at the stadiums in South Africa.
Apparently, so have FIFA. And they're not too happy about this.
More than half of the Royal Bafokeng stadium seats in Rustenburg were empty for the Confederations Cup match between Spain and New Zealand
Sepp Blatter was yesterday highly critical of the Confederations Cup local organising committee for the lack of supporters at Spain's 5-0 thrashing of New Zealand at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Phokeng on Sunday night.
Despite the presence of the European champions and world number one ranked side, the stadium was at best half full, a seriously poor attendance for Phokeng's first match of the tournament.
Organizers had insisted in the buildup that all but the expensive 700 Rand seats had been sold out for the opening Group A match. But come kickoff, two-thirds of the seats sat empty, with yellow and blue seats outnumbering fans at the 45,000 capacity stadium before late arrivals brought the total number to 21,649 as Liverpool's Fernando Torres scored a hat-trick inside 17 minutes to lead Spain to a 5-0 win.
"On Sunday evening in Rustenburg the committee should have done more to bring people to the stadium," the Fifa president said.
The atmosphere at the Royal Bafokeng stadium was dulled by the thousands of empty seats
While Blatter professed himself content with the crowd at Ellis Park for Bafana Bafana's opening match against Iraq, he suggested that the organising committee could have filled the empty seats clearly visible at the ground.
Blatter said organisers should have tried alternative ways to get the stadiums full. There must be some action taken for the rest of the competition. To have half-empty stadiums is not FIFA. They have to do something about it.
Despite the Confederations Cup being the first major footballing event of its kind on the African continent, South Africa played against Iraq to a crowd of under 50,000 in a 61,000-capacity stadium at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.
Blatter added: "We were not happy with the crowd at the opening match (South Africa v Iraq) or on Sunday evening when the European champions Spain were playing New Zealand in Rustenburg. It is up to the organisers, the local media, to get the message across."
In Bloemfontein the attendance at the match between five-times world champions Brazil and African champions Egypt, which Blatter attended was also disappointingly low with the 40,000-capacity Free State Stadium only about half full when the match kicked off.
There was no clamour for seats in the match between Spain and New Zealand
Blatter was reluctant to comment on Bafana's disappointing goalless draw with Iraq, meanwhile, though he did suggest that the national team ought to have managed to score. "As Fifa president I am not in a position to comment, but I do hope that in their next game Bafana can at least score a goal," said Blatter.
Organizers of this event and next year's World Cup finals have called for a better response from the South African public for the games.
"The South African nation's job is to host the event, not attend it. You can take the horse to the water, but you can't force it to drink that water." 2010 World Cup organizing committee spokesman Rich Mkhondo told a news briefing in Johannesburg.
Sizing Things Up - that's just what the soccer world is doing as it assesses South Africa's ability to host the World Cup next year.
- Rows of empty seats at the 16 Confederations Cup matches in Johannesburg, Rustenburg, Pretoria, and Bloemfontein won't help, as organizers are scrambling to sell the approximately 30 percent of tickets still available.
- South Africa appears to have overcome the main criticism that the stadiums for the World Cup wouldn't be ready on time.
- For many months after South Africa was awarded the World Cup, very little work was done to build and refurbish the grounds or improve transportation. Work is still going on, with long lines of traffic in Johannesburg evidence of last-minute efforts to improve the city's main roads.
- Days before Bloemfontein's first game between Brazil and Egypt on June 15, workers were still busy renovating and modernizing the quaint little airport. Passengers arriving and departing had to squeeze past each other with half the terminal cordoned off for ongoing construction work.
- Related story:-
Nevermind the criminals, mind the police
Reuters soccer correspondent Mike Collett has an encounter with the local constabulary - an incident that will no doubt be repeated many times when the soccer fans descend on South Africa for the big event.
Mind how you go, sir — a lesson with the South African police
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