World Cup 2010: The euphoria after South Africa won the right to stage the 2010 World Cup has been tempered with calls in the Johannesburg Sunday newspapers for national football organisers to clean up their act.
"What a day SA: Viva Africa, Viva World Cup", read the headline across the front page of the popular City Press, which has a mainly black readership.
However, the broadsheet also highlighted the problems it said faced the South African Football Association (SAFA).
"Infighting, lacklustre refereeing, misbehaving fans and unprofessional conduct have no place in an organisation that has now invited the world into our backyard," it said.
South Africa has not experienced any of the major attacks which have hit Asia and Europe in the past couple of years, but violent crime remains an issue, with the country's murder rate still one of the highest in the world.
"Baby Democracy . . . has received her greatest birthday gift," the Sunday Independent said in an editorial, taking note of the nation's decade of democracy following the end of apartheid in 1994. "We can only deliver on our promise to the world if we iron out the problems that have bedevilled our football administration," the editorial continued. "Our matches must start on time and the security at games should be drastically upgraded."
Although South Africa secured the right to stage the world's most popular football event, the SAFA has been blighted by incompetence over the past few years. Coaches have come and gone, while some players have yet to be paid for competing in January's African Nations Cup finals in Tunisia.
The Sunday Times said that May 15th would go down as one of the greatest days in the history of the nation as the country became "a team" of more than 40 million people.
But it also urged SAFA to streamline its management and refine its player selection process to ensure it gets the best possible team by 2010.
"SAFA bigwigs must work hard at grooming coaches and technical team members and get out of the habit of firing coaches willy-nilly. It is time for the association to show its mettle and maturity," it said.
South Africa was awarded the 2010 World Cup in Zurich on Saturday ahead of bids from Morocco and Egypt. It staged the 1995 rugby World Cup and 2003 cricket World Cup.
South Africa, once comfortably ranked inside the top 20 teams in world football, have slipped down to 40 in the FIFA rankings issued last week. They qualified for the last two World Cups but have never got past the first round. On both occasions they changed their coach within six months of the event.
They open their qualifying campaign for the 2006 finals with a home match against the Cape Verde Islands on June 5th and play fellow group favourites Ghana a fortnight later.
Although there was disappointment among losing candidates, their bid officials were quick to congratulate South Africa.
They said the most important thing was that the main event was finally coming to Africa.
"It's not only South Africa that has gained. The whole of Africa has much to benefit (from) in terms of publicity," said a spokesman for African Union commission president Alpha Oumar Konare.
"It will also help to change the image of Africa from that of conflict to peaceful activities such as sports."
