FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa: Is the Third World Ready for Global Sports?

The world cup frenzy has reached its peak. If the recent news reports are any indication, the first edition of the world's biggest sporting event in Africa is all set to break all possible records in terms of viewership, sponsorships and revenues. Now this is indeed a huge morale booster for two main reasons. Firstly, at a time when the global economy was passing through one of its worst phase, the whopping revenues that the world cup is set to generate, is a welcome change. And secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the World Cup holds hope for other developing economies both in Africa and Asia that if a country like South Africa can deliver a tournament of this magnitude so can they, provided they get an opportunity.

There was considerable speculation in the world media in the run up to the soccer world cup on whether South Africa will be able to live up to the expectations and the standards set by the previous editions. News headlines were dominated by how South Africa may not be fully equipped to handle the infrastructure, facilities and security that is required to host the biggest sporting event in the history. However, all that has now been put to rest with the tournament kicking off to a brilliant start.

The South Africa world cup should serve as an eye opener for world sports bodies like FIFA and they should realize that it's time they turned their attention to the third world or developing countries which require much more for development of sports than perhaps Europe and America. There is no dearth of sporting talent in the third world nations and with right guidance and nurturing they can be at par with other countries. So if we can have more events like the world cup or even Olympics in the Africa-Asia region it will go a long way in achieving the target of globalizing sporting events.

Mike Smith is is freelance market analyst and is writing reviews articles on cricket scores live, economy news india and india media news.