How will South Africa benefit from World Cup?

• New York Times, Monday, July 12, 2010 6:03 PM

Now that the World Cup is over, what tangible, long-term benefits will there be for South Africa? The South African government spent $4.3 billion for the World Cup, and provincial and municipal governments chipped in $400 million to $900 million, mostly in infrastructure and construction costs. The South African soccer federation will take in $80 million to $100 million from the World Cup, mostly from ticket sales. FIFA will make about $3.2 billion from the 2010 World Cup that will finance 95 percent of its operating budget for another four years.

“The long-term benefits are these investments in infrastructure,” South Africa's finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, said. “Once you build a road, it doesn’t disappear once the World Cup ends.”

Many of the estimated 130,000 temporary jobs created by the tournament, mostly in construction, will not last. A country of 48 million people, South Africa has 25 percent unemployment and wide disparities between rich and poor. “We don’t look at revenue now,” Gordhan said. “You have to look at the benefits hard and soft over a 20-year period.”

“South Africans are very proud of what the country has achieved and everyone in South Africa is walking tall,” said Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the World Cup organizing committee. “For years, many South Africans have been told that they are inferior, that they are not good enough. The nation has crossed a huge psychological barrier.”

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