World-class eventing at Confederations Cup opener

The official opening of the FIFA Confederations Cup 2009 has silenced a lot of critics over whether or not South Africa is capable of successfully hosting an event like the World Cup. The opening ceremony presented an image of South Africa that will sell South Africa to any doubting Thomas.

Congratulations to Lebo M – he of ‘The Lion King’ fame – for putting on a truly magnificent opening show with a very uniquely African theme. The singers coming out of the hut at the centre of the pitch was an absolute winner for me with everything revolving around the ‘home’. This show could not happen anywhere else but Africa. Although it was African in look and feel it used universal devices for expression such as the beautiful mosaics that were created by the performers.

Definitely a taste of the high standards we can now be sure of at next year’s World Cup. I need say no more on this – the spectacle spoke for itself. Now onto a completely different subject altogether. That is, the packaging of players with a view to making big money transfers.

Teko Modise proved yet again yesterday that he is South Africa’s hottest property at the moment when he was named ‘man of the match’ against Iraq. No doubt by the end of the tournament he will not have a shortage of suitors for his signature.

However, maybe players like Teko, should be marketed a little differently in order to get them the best deal possible. This also applies to any other players who may be considering moving on to greener pastures. The idea entails the player’s club investing a little more to get bigger returns.

For instance, Orlando Pirates could look at creating a very sophisticated audio-visual brochure of Teko Modise that sells the player to selectively targeted potential buyers. This audio-visual brochure would feature the players’ characteristics and demonstrate these characteristics with game-situation footage.

The brochure would also include interviews about the player with key people such as the player’s coach, physio, fellow-players, family, friends and business manager to create a good all-round profile of the player on and off the pitch.

This would also help the club to know which sort of culture the player would fit into in line with his psychographic profile. Included must be the player’s up-to-date medical reports and international profile, in the case of Teko. Once the brochure is compiled the club would then scientifically select a short list of potential clubs that would be a good fit for the player and sending the brochure to these clubs.

The late Sizwe Motaung never adjusted to life in Austria during his stint there – Jabu Mahlangu (Pule) is another case in point. Both players couldn’t adjust to the food, language and lifestyle and didn’t last long there. This can now be avoided if the process of selling a player is more scientific.

It would ultimately lead to the club and player getting better value for the transfer and would also ensure that the player fits into his prospective club better. This has to be the way forward.