{"id":5605,"date":"2009-12-05T11:07:26","date_gmt":"2009-12-05T09:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=5605"},"modified":"2009-12-05T19:33:03","modified_gmt":"2009-12-05T17:33:03","slug":"african-fifa-final-draw-show-disappoints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/african-fifa-final-draw-show-disappoints\/","title":{"rendered":"African FIFA Final Draw show disappoints"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Given the amount of effort that was put into the production of the FIFA Final Draw show, which was broadcast to\u00a0700 million viewers in 200 countries, the one hour show was disappointing, and an opportunity lost for the marketing of Cape Town and South Africa, reflecting an ueber-African theme.\u00a0\u00a0 Local producer George Mazarakis’\u00a0claim that this would be\u00a0the best Final Draw production did not live up to his promise.<\/p>\n

While the footage on Sky News <\/strong>showed that the entrance to the Cape Town International Convention Centre was beautifully decorated with murals depicting various aspects of Cape Town, including a huge Table Mountain and other iconic visuals, and real proteas, there was no visual representation of Cape Town or the country inside the show venue, the stage being largely bare, with only the screen, the podium, and the very valuable World Cup in front of it.<\/p>\n

Video after video was shown, largely telling the story of the FIFA World Cup.\u00a0\u00a0 Another showed the readiness and preparation by the hospitality industry for the big event, with not one white person featured in it at all!\u00a0\u00a0 Johnny Clegg was the only white performer of the show.\u00a0\u00a0 The visuals in the video showed some wildlife, but none of the other beautiful highlights of Cape Town or the rest of the country was shown.\u00a0 The sound for Angelique\u00a0Kidjo’s performance was atrocious,\u00a0but improved by the time the Grammy-award winning Soweto Gospel Choir performed.<\/p>\n

Zakumi, the 2010 World Cup mascot, looked silly, and is not an asset to the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Draw itself was presented by ‘Lady in Red” Charlize Theron, whose sole role was to look pretty next to serious Jerome Valcke, Secretary-General of FIFA.\u00a0 Theron, whose dress was designed by local designer Gavin Rajah, gushed about her pride in “our country”.\u00a0 Valcke said “We are ready,\u00a0 South Africa is ready”, to great applause.\u00a0 Speaking far too quickly,\u00a0Valcke tried to explain how the complicated Draw works, and how the “geographic separation” had to be created.\u00a0\u00a0 This was achieved by having 8 “pots”, from which the teams playing against the 8 seeded teams (Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina,\u00a0England and South Africa) were randomly selected by David Beckham, South African Springbok rugby captain John Smit\u00a0and cricketer Makhaya Ntini (what were they doing at a soccer event?), Bafana Bafana’s Matthew Booth, and Olympic medallist Haile Gebrselassie.<\/p>\n

The eight groups for the 2010 World Cup are the following:<\/p>\n

Group A:\u00a0 South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, and France<\/p>\n

Group B:\u00a0\u00a0 Argentina, Korea Republic, Nigeria and Greece<\/p>\n

Group C:\u00a0 England, USA, Algeria and Slovenia<\/p>\n

Group D: Germany, Australia, Ghana, Serbia<\/p>\n

Group E: The Netherlands, Japan, Cameroon, and Denmark<\/p>\n

Group F: Italy, Paraguay, Slovakia, and New Zealand<\/p>\n

Group G: Brazil, Korea DPR, Ivory Coast and Portugal<\/p>\n

Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras and Chile<\/p>\n

Eight matches will be played in the new Cape Town Stadium, on\u00a0the following dates and times:<\/p>\n

11 June\u00a0 France versus Uruguay at 8.30 pm<\/p>\n

14 June: Italy versus Paraguay\u00a0 at 8.30 pm<\/p>\n

18 June:\u00a0England versus Algeria at 8.30 pm\u00a0<\/p>\n

21 June: Portugal versus Korea DPR at 1.30 pm<\/p>\n

24 June : Cameroon versus The Netherlands at 8.30 pm<\/p>\n

29 June:\u00a0 winner of first group H and second group G, at 8.30 pm<\/p>\n

3 July : quarter-final at 4 pm<\/p>\n

6 July: \u00a0semi-final at 8.30 pm<\/p>\n

Capetonians who joined the Fan Fest at the top of Long Street probably had the most fun, in partying the night away to music greats such as Coda, Freshlyground and more.\u00a0\u00a0 It is estimated that a crowd of 50 000 enjoyed itself, and entrance to more party-goers had to be barred.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sky News <\/strong>broadcast from Long Street prior to the start of the Final Draw.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www,whalecottage.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given the amount of effort that was put into the production of the FIFA Final Draw show, which was broadcast to\u00a0700 million viewers in 200 countries, the one hour show was disappointing, and an opportunity lost for the marketing of Cape Town and South Africa, reflecting an ueber-African theme.\u00a0\u00a0 Local producer George Mazarakis’\u00a0claim that this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3,124,22,21,11],"tags":[264,2907,97,32366,256,2901,32378,1520,2902,2908,18,2457,1104,947,2903,2906,1482,2904,2905,32388,1792,4,32373,2909,70],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t