It is much more serious than life or death ..

Matshelane Mamabolo
June 14 2009 at 07:55AM

For a fortnight starting today, South Africa will forget about its problems. For 14 days most residences of Mzansi will be oblivious to the global economic recession that has the world firmly in its grip.

Such is the power of football.

When former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly uttered that now famous quote, "Football's not a matter of life and death... it's more important than that", it would have seemed like he was exaggerating.

But over time, he has been proved right as the game of billions served to play a role much bigger than just entertaining those watching 22 men chasing after the round pig's leather.
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Right here in our country way back in 1996, football served to unite a nation previously divided by apartheid when Bafana Bafana captured the African Cup of Nations.

The sight of then President Nelson Mandela standing side by side with FW De Klerk, the man he replaced at the country's helm, watching Neil Tovey hold the trophy aloft provided us with the definitive sign that South Africa has moved on.

And out in the stands and throughout the country, both black and white celebrated the triumph that helped take the new democratic dispensation ushered in two years earlier further.

Two years ago in Germany, it was football that helped change the world's perception of the Germans as stiff, boring people as they hosted a successful World Cup that saw them open up to visitors in hospitality hitherto thought of as foreign to them.

Thanks largely to a sceptical European media, our country has been viewed as a no-go area teeming with criminals and HIV and Aids carriers. This though has not stopped FIFA president Sepp Blatter from remaining steadfast in his belief that we are worthy of hosting his organisations's crown jewel - the World Cup.

And on Sunday at Ellis Park we will take the first major step towards proving the stock amiable Swiss fellow right.

• This article was originally published on page 20 of Sunday Independent on June 14, 2009

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