The Springboks’ last minute loss to the Wallabies in the hosts’ final Tri-Nations encounter on Saturday evening made the Sunday Morning Post‘s sports-pages on Sunday.

With Hong Kong again hosting the final Bledisloe Cup match in October this year (the previous such match took place in 2008) there is renewed interest in the Southern Hemisphere’s premier competition, the Tri-Nations.

In fact, with Hong Kong Bledisloe Cup ticket sales reported to be sluggish this year (in part due to the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand next year) the Hong Kong rugby authorities are pinning their hopes on the Wallabies beating their Trans-Tasman opponents in next week’s final Tri-Nations encounter.  This, they hope, would make the third-ever Bledisloe Cup to be played on neutral ground more of a contest with the All Blacks having totally dominated the Tri-Nations this year.

With a potential Hong Kong bid for the 2023 Asian Games looming, it is not hard to understand why the issue of white elephants will be in the back of locals’ minds.

The following story about South Africa’s World Cup stadia and the fact that they are not suitable for cricket appeared in today’s Sunday Morning Post.

The story highlights comments by SARU President, Oregan Hoskins:

“What we are discussing today should have been discussed before we built the stadiums.  It is tragic we have to act in reverse.”

The Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) in Central was painted in Bafana Bafana-yellow last night when South Africans in Hong Kong gathered to celebrate the start of the first-ever football World Cup on African soil.

I was one of those unfortunate souls who wasn’t sporting one.  In fact, my own dress faux-pas was putting on black denims and black shirt on a night when humidity in Hong Kong was close to 100%. Yes, I know: Dof-head!

Today the family and I went on a scouting trip and found that the Adidas flagship in Tsim Sha Tsui’s Hankow Road do in fact stock Bafana Bafana supporters shirts at HK$476.00 a pop. 

Primrose Zwedala from the SA Consulate also confirmed that Sogo on Hong Kong Island sell them as well.

Go get yours now. There’s still a month of football left.

    Painting the FCC yellow and kicking up a moerse racket with the Vuvuzelas! Paaarp! (Pic: Mike Jansen)

 Later the evening, we saw these supporters partying in Lan Kwi Fong. Apparently, the bloke in the brown pants blew his Vuvuzela so hard, he wet himself!  (Pic: Mike Jansen)

(Click here to view more than 130 pictures from last night’s FCC event)

The house full sign went up at Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) as South Africans came together to celebrate the start of the 2010 Football World Cup.

The evening however, was also more than that.  It was also an opportunity to celebrate our South African-ness, all the while paying homage to the fact that our country is able to deliver the world’s biggest sporting event. The evening was organised by the South African Consulate as a central venue to watch the Opening Ceremony from one of the country’s biggest, purpose-built venues: Johannesburg’s Soccer City. 

More about the evening later.  Here are some pics:

If you’ve taken careful notice, you will have seen our section called “SA in the HK Media.”

With the 2010 World Cup a mere 5 days away, it’s getting more and more of a chore keeping up with all the reports from home appearing in the Hog Kong media.  That is NOT at all a bad thing.

We hope you didn’t miss last Friday’s edition of HK Magazine for they had a lekker insert about the World Cup called “HK World Cup Guide 2010.”

A useful local guide to the world’s biggest sporting event, it features sections like:

* A guide to the BIG TEAMS: Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

* The COMEBACK KIDS: Australia, Chile, Greece, Mexico, Uruguay, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Serbia, North Korea, Slovakia and Slovenia.

* The ONES TO WATCH: Cameroon, Denmark, Honduras, South Korea, Netherlands, Paraguay, South Africa and USA.

* The UNDERDOGS: Algeria, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria and Switzerland.

The insert also features a handy guide to where you can sample some of the participating nations’ cuisine in Hong Kong while watching the on-the-pitch action from South Africa.

Needless to say there’s also a handy Match Schedule as well as a sheet where you can enter the scores and progress of the teams as the tournament progresses.

If all else fails and you did in fact miss last week’s issue of the HK Magazine, just contact them, hopefully they still have a few copies left over.

Find the HK magazine here:

Asia City Publishing Ltd.

301 Hollywood Centre

233 Hollywood Road, Hong Kong

Tel. (+852) 2850-5065

Fax. (+852) 2543-1880

E-mail: asiacity@asia-city.com.hk

Hurry.

If you still haven’t caught the World Cup 2010 “Gees” (Afrikaans for “Spirit”) make your way down to King’s Park in Kowloon’s Ho Man Tin area tomorrow.

A mini World Cup tournament for Under-12 Hong Kong boys and girls, wearing the national jerseys of the countries that have qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, will take place on Sunday, 6 June 2010.

The Makaraba Mini World Cup is organised by the South African Consulate General in partnership with the Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong Government and assisted by the Hong Kong Football Association.

The word “Makaraba” refers to the flamboyantly decorated hand-made helmets worn by football fans in South Africa.

The iconic Makaraba helmet (Pic: makaraba.co.za)

Teams participating in the Makaraba Mini World Cup will comprise of international school students who will represent their school’s native country. Those countries that do not have educational institutions in Hong Kong will be represented by children selected from various districts and sport academies in across the region.

The Makaraba Mini World Cup is based on the actual Groups of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa with all the participating countries represented in the group stage. Every game will be 15 minutes with 7-a-side playing from the 12 member team.

“The response has been incredibly enthusiastic with the consulates of the respective participating countries, schools, administrators, boys and girls, and parents participating,” said Ms Nomatemba Tambo, South African Consul-General for Hong Kong SAR / Macau SAR.

Officiating at the opening ceremony at 9am with Ms Tambo will be Ms Florence Hui Hiu-Fai, JP, Under Secretary for Home Affairs; Mr Brian Leung Hung Tak, Chairman of the Hong Kong Football Association and Mr Trevor Gregory, Chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union. Also in attendance will be senior executives from adidas, Coca Cola and McDonald’s, all partners of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa who will also be sponsoring the day with food, drinks and prizes for the winning teams.

The officials will be joined by adidas’ celebrity soccer players who will be sitting on the panel of judges to name the top scorer, best goalkeeper and most valuable/promising player of the Makaraba Mini World Cup.

All 32 teams will be parading at the opening ceremony in full national gear and wave the flags of their representative countries. Kickoff is scheduled for 9:30am. The group matches will be played on six fields simultaneously. The knockout stage is expected to start at about 1:30pm.

The final whistle of the Makaraba Mini World Cup tournament brings to an end the South African Consulate General’s promotion campaign in Hong Kong.  This exciting campaign saw the unveiling of a countdown-clock at Times Square, a South African Festival at Olympian City Mall, as well visits by former national footballer Mark Fish and the exciting Diski Dancers. 

All eyes will then turn to South Africa for the start of the biggest sporting event in the world where South Africa is ready to surprise the world.

Ke Nako! It’s time!

The Seattle-based coffee company has announced that it will make its first foray into the South African market just in time for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.  However, urbanites will have to wait a while longer as the beverages (coffee and tea) will initially only be available at selected Southern Sun & Tsogo Sun hotels in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.

Starbucks Corp. said it will distribute its coffee and tea products in selected locations in South Africa in a partnership with Emperica Marketing (Pty.) Ltd., starting Monday.

Southern Sun is one of the leading hotel groups in South Africa. Tsogo Sun is a gaming operation. Starbucks said its espresso-based drinks will be from 100% Fairtrade-certified coffee.

I have been living in Asia for about 10 years now and have been travelling home to South Africa when things literally gets too hot here in Asia.  June/July is Asia’s HOT Summer months and also the longest school holidays for my family. 

Fortunately for us Asian-based South African expats, June/July is also winter in South Africa… something that most soccer tourists from this side of the equator seem to forget when they are planning their 2010 trip.

People, let me tell you, while South Africa does not get snow during winter (except on the mountains) it can get pretty darn cold, especially on the Johannesburg highveld, while Cape Town will be WET.  That I promise.

Continues below. SA readers please click on the banner below to support Howzit-HongKong:

Renee over at Zoopy.com put together this heads-up video if you’re planning to travel to South Africa for the 2010 Soccer World Cup:

You’ve been warned.  Dress appropriately and enjoy South Africa 2010!

Leonardo Di Caprio said it in his movie Blood Diamond: “T.I.A…. this is Africa” 

FIFA is fast learning the realities of this line.

First they insisted that tickets to the 2010 World Cup only be sold online and in phases using only a credit card.

Yesterday, Sep Blatter’s FIFA succumbed to the realities of a developing country and started selling tickets, for the first time ever, over the counter and in cash.

And they even messed that one up.

A student is squeezed against a window in a ticket queue (Pic: Craig Nieuwenhuizen, Beeld)

While I’m typing this (Friday, mid-day) South Africans are phoning in to radio stations with their horror stories about trying to get their hands on a ticket or two.  Angry callers bombarded talk-shows the whole of last night venting their frustrations.

FIFA spin doctors blamed the “volume of demand.”

In Cape Town, where people queued for hours overnight, frustrations ran high when a computer malfunction delayed sales for a long time.  An excited punter from Mitchell’s Plain died from an apparant seizure waiting in line.

Cops try to maintain order in a Cape Town queue (Pic: Stephen Williams, Die Burger)

Yesterday we reported that FIFA will be selling some 500 000 tickets through the over-the-counter system.  Today it was revealed that not all 500 000 tickets were, in fact, available yesterday.  However, the cheapest Category 4 tickets (around R140) were reported to have been sold out (“un-available” in FIFA-speak) during yesterday’s melee.

Hopefully yesterday’s chaos will have taught FIFA something and the next over-the-counter sales day will go smoother.

Here at Howzit-HongKong.com we believe that if FIFA had put all 500 000 tickets on sale yesterday, even with the frustrations, they would have sold most tickets in this way.  All said and done, we stand by our forecast when we say,

2010 stadiums will be full come June/July 2010.

Our friends at Zoopy.com posted the following video report from Cape Town:

Read more on yesterday’s chaos on iol.com and News24.com

The major cities in South Africa are in the grip of 2010 soccer fever as FIFA made about 500 000 tickets available to the South African public.  Tickets went on sale at around 9am today (Thursday, April 15).

Excited supporters queued overnight in order to be one of the first to purchase 2010 tickets.

Forced by poor ticket sales abroad, the football body decided to sell tickets over the counter, for the first time in the history of the World Cup.  Prospective buyers only need their identity document while they can purchase tickets with a credit card or cash.  FIFA’s rules were also changed because the majority of the local soccer-loving public either do not have a credit card or access to the internet.

People wait outside a Cape Town ticket centre earlier today (Pic: Renee)

Around the country, radio stations played their part by urging listeners to make use of this rare opportunity to purchase tickets while some stations also broadcast live from the dedicated ticket outlets and some branches of First National Bank (FNB).

Football Fridays watched the crowds at this ticket outlet in Johannesburg:

The media reported recently that ticket sales abroad, especially in traditional football countries such as the UK, Germany and the Netherlands have been particularly disappointing.  These countries’ football bodies also returned thousands of unsold tickets to the June/July spectacular in South Africa.  However, FIFA was buoyed by huge sales in the US, made possible in part by their national side’s great performance at the recently-held Confederations Cup.

Continues below. South African readers please click on the banner to support Howzit-HongKong

This is how things shaped up in the Mother City of Cape Town:

While we will sadly not be there to share in the excitement, here at Howzit-HongKong.com HQ we are of the opinion that the 2010 stadiums will be FULL come June 2010:

Full of South Africans!

Now that’s Ayoba.