With less than 370 days left before the kick off of the FIFA 2010 Soccer World, soccer fever has begun to grip the African landscape.
From Cape to Cairo, this soccer spectacular held after every four years, has created renewed expectations and optimism for the revival of the African continent on the sporting front as well as in other sectors such as business and contribute in overall economic development.
In South Africa alone, infrastructure programmes worth billions of rands have created hundreds of thousands of jobs and provided on the job training for some who ordinarily would not stand a chance of getting employment.
Driving around the host cities, major development programmes are taking place with building programmes at most of the stadia in the final phase of construction and extra lanes being added to the existing road infrastructure.
The tourism sector is also abuzz with activity. Ordinary homes both in the urban centres and some rural settings have been converted into bed and breakfast hotels, ensuring that the financial benefits of the World Cup trickles down to historically disadvantaged communities.
This economic boom is expected to spread to some of the countries in the South African Development Community (SADC) region who plan to offer training facilities to participating teams for the duration of the World Cup.
FH Johannesburg is also doing its bit to market the event through its management of the Shine 2010 website. The Shine 2010 online campaign, sponsored by banking group, First National Bank, proved to be the catalyst that launched FH Digital in South Africa.
The website is a “home of good news” profiling the work that is being done to prepare for the event.
“We are proud of what the Shine 2010 website has been able to achieve, not only connecting soccer fans around the world, but providing a platform for the organisers to provide updates on the various developments” says FH digital head, Casey Monteiro.
Links to visit: www.shine2010.co.za.
