World Cup 2010: World of hope, change, and opportunity

Throughout history, humans have enjoyed kicking a ball or something like a ball. According to historical references and legend, early balls ranged from stitched-up cloth, animal, or human skulls, to pig or cow bladders.

During the T’sin and the Han dynasties, the Chinese played “tsu chu” in which animal skin balls were dribbled to gaps in a net stretched between two poles. The ancient Egyptians had activities similar to football while the ancient Greeks and Romans played a game that entailed carrying and kicking a ball. In the 1800’s, Charles Goodyear designed, patented, and made the first vulcanized rubber balls, and since then, football has become to be one of the most favorite played and watched games in the world.

The World Cup South Africa 2010 represents a defining moment in the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup. For the first time, football’s greatest event is being staged in the African continent, and the excitement of the drama of a FIFA World Cup together with the awesome natural beauty of South Africa are irresistible magnets that beckoned fans from every corner of the globe to the southern tip of Africa. South Africans see this event as a gateway to tourism on a greater scale.

World Cup 2010 is an event that could transform the continent and bind African nations together. Africa is seen by the outside world as a continent with so much poverty, disease, and war. For players of African heritage, this World Cup means a lot. Many of them have seen and lived through these situations and they recognize that football has opened to them a world of hope, change, and opportunity. In football, they get lost in the colors of the flags of the various participating nations, forget that most of their countrymen get by on about two dollars a day, and forget the rage of tuberculosis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). In football, Africans have seen the downtrodden become heroes and see the game as a force to ease their problems, to help them forget about their divided past, and opens to them the opportunity to build a better future.

In a land of so many languages, dialects, and people, the Africa Cup can bring together Christian and Muslim teammates arm-in-arm, chanting, singing, praying, and changing lives.