The World

By Gideon Rachman

The World Cup draw has just been made and I am immediately faced with a dilemma – can I be bothered to travel thousands of miles and to spend thousands of pounds to watch Brazil play Portugal in Durban on July 25th? On the one hand, I appear to have tickets for the tie of the round. On the other hand, my sofa in west London looks more comfortable and cheaper.

I will return to my personal issues in a moment. But, first, some comments on the draw. Everybody on television here is crowing about how easy England’s group is: the US, Algeria and Slovenia. Even Scotland might have a shot of qualifying from a group like that. When England were drawn in an easy group and made to play their first game in Rustenberg, right near their training camp, I must admit I sensed a fix. (The proverbial hot ball in the pot.) Were FIFA making things easy for the English, who usually have a huge and free-spending group of travelling supporters? The holders, Italy, also have a ludicrously easy group.

But any unworthy suspicions that there might have been a fix have been dispelled by looking at poor old South Africa’s group. It is normally deemed essential to the health of the tournament that the host country qualify for the knock-out stages, which means that they have to finish in the top two. Normally, by hook or by crook, they do it. Even an unfancied US made it to the last 16 in 1994 – and both co-hosts, Japan and South Korea, made it through in 2002. But South Africa are really going to struggle to qualify. In fact, they might struggle to win a game against Mexico, France and Uruguay.

This is meant to be the “African” World Cup. But the draw – like most things – seems to have been particularly unkind to Africa. The continent’s strongest side, Ivory Coast, have been drawn in the proverbial Group of Death (or “Grupo de la muerte” as we like to refer to it, in London), with Brazil and Portugal. This is the second time in a row this has happened to the Ivorians. I followed them around Germany at the last World Cup, when they were unlucky enough to get drawn against Argentina and Holland.

Which brings me back to my personal dilemma – should I watch from my sofa or head for South Africa? Through sheer hard work, I have managed to secure tickets for two games – Brazil-Portugal and a last 16 game in Joburg, which looks like it might be Argentina-Mexico. It will be a hell of a slog getting there. I have made tentative inquiries about hotel rooms in Durban and they were going at around £200 a night, with lots of places insisting that you book for three nights. All the flights from Joburg to Durban that I looked at were full, as well. So it is tempting just to sell my tickets on. (Assuming I can get hold of them, the catch is you have to travel to South Africa, just to pick them up.)

On the other hand, the World Cup is an addictive experience – doubly so, if you are watching Brazil. My best ever football-watching experience was also my first ever World Cup match – watching Brazil open their campaign against Russia in Stanford in 1994. The football is almost incidental, it’s the sense of occasion. We drove down from San Francisco on a highway that was clogged with cars flying the Brazilian flag. The Brazilian team walked out onto the turf, (holding hands rather touchingly), under a bright blue sky, while Santana played live on the pitch to greet them.

That got me hooked. In 1998, I went with the invading army of English supporters to watch the team play Rumania in Toulouse. We lost, but Owen scored. I skipped the World Cup in Japan on the grounds of distance and inconvenience. But then last time round in Germany, I had tickets for everything – all the way to the final. The second best moment was watching Leipzig being turned into a small part of Latin America, when Mexico played Argentina there. (Tempting to think that I might see the two sides face off again, in Johannesburg – it was a great game.) And the best moment of all was seeing Italy eliminate Germany in an incredibly tense and noisy semi-final in Dortmund. The FT’s Matthew Engel’s report on the match was headlined – “Sometimes you just have to be there.”

Yes, indeed. I suppose I better get on the internet and start looking for flights. And if any readers of this blog happen to have a spare flat in Durban, do let me know….