IOL Sport - Fifa World Cup 2022

THE BEAUTIFUL GAME

IOL Sport Live Editor John Goliath, who is heading to Qatar, hopes this World Cup will create similar golden memories as South Africa 2010 had for all of us…

JOHN GOLIATH

I’M genuinely intrigued how the Fifa World Cup 2022 is going to play out because of all the controversy surrounding the awarding of the tournament to Qatar and the subsequent reports of migrant labour and human rights abuses related to the building of the stadiums.

It’s certainly not going to be a “normal” World Cup - a first in the Middle-East - where your average football fanatic or LGBTQ+ community member may find it hard to, well, live their best life.

I’m going to be in Qatar, courtesy of SuperSport, attending four matches in a whirlwind five-day trip. It’s going to be my first Fifa World Cup in 12 years. And to be honest, I had those same butterflies in my stomach back then.

Could we, as the first African host nation, pull off the biggest sports event in the world? Would football lovers feel safe in our country? What about our fragile public transport system? And would the stadiums be ready?

Just over 12 years later and we all know the answers. It was here, and we felt it!

South Africa 2010 turned out to be the best month of my life, and quite possibly yours.

I had a front-row seat as the Cape Times football correspondent.

And being a young man, who didn’t need a lot of sleep to tick over, the days and nights in that glorious month flowed into one. But it wasn’t always graceful. Most days were as chaotic as the Orange River gushing down the Augrabies Waterfalls.

A typical pre-game day kicked off with a red-eye 6am flight from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth (now known as Gqeberha) - the two cities where I was based during the World Cup.

Pre-match press conference. Tick. File copy for the AM newspapers. Tick. Heavy drinking and partying with complete strangers from all across the globe. Tick. Arrive home in the early hours. Tick. File more copy for the PM papers with eyes virtually closed. Tick. Fall into bed for two hours. Tick. And then head to the stadium for the big game. TikTok!

And that’s how it went for virtually 30 days non-stop. But that wasn’t all.

Post-match and the party would re-start. Here is when I would hook up with my friend and colleague Zaahier Adams, who while still

working in the Cape Town office, but managed to get to the Bay by any means possible, watch a match, join in the festivities and still be be back at his desk within a 24-hour period.

He had even less sleep than I did. Basically a few winks on my hotel bed after another epic night out while I was busy filing copy before catching his lift back to Cape Town.

But Adams helped me live my best World Cup life, because, in those days before Uber, it was a significant bonus to have a wing man who doesn’t touch alcohol.

He was the designated driver and the only guy who really remembers anything that happened after midnight during that tournament.

My fondest memory of the World Cup, though, was giving a bunch of Brazilian fans a lift from the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. Julia Stuart, now of SuperSport fame, and I shared a rental that day - in her guise as Daily Voice Sports Editor back then.

These Brazilian fans didn’t know us from a bar of soap, and could hardly speak any English. All I heard was ‘Fifa Fan Fesh’, so we figured we must take them to the Fifa Fan Festival, where we were also going to watch a match at St Georges’ Park on the big screen.

The other sentence those guys uttered in the car was ‘Dunga, son of a b*tch’, but they were so happy that we helped them, they bought us beer all night.

I wonder if people attending this World Cup in Qatar will leave with similar memories? Of course, not the drinking so much, but the camaraderie and joy of sharing this beautiful game, which divides us, but also pulls us closer as fans.

I’m hoping my five days in Qatar will be spent enjoying the World Cup to the max, much like we did at home in 2010.