This is a guest post by Diana Tenjes who enjoys writing about the benefits of massage for her website Massage Bed.

Despite all the wonderful and positive things that have come out of this World Cup, FIFA and its heavy-handed tactics are not going unnoticed. The world’s football governing body is not hiding the fact that it is making an enormous amount of money from the tournament, but this doesn’t mean it needs to resort to bullying in order to show the world who the football boss is. Some of Fifa’s handling of situations has even threatened to overshadow the wonderful game unfolding on the pitch.

Fifa’s income for this World Cup cycle, from 2007-2010, is estimated to be at least $3.2 billion. Almost half of that money comes from sponsorship and licensing, while the rest originates from the sale of TV rights around the world. FIFA has forced South Africa to fall in line with what they call “Ambush Marketing.” This is Fifa president Sepp Blatter’s attempt to quash the threat of any brand that is not an official sponsor of the World Cup. Basically, if FIFA doesn’t receive money for the use of promoting a brand, it doesn’t want to see that brand exist in or around the World Cup.

The example that best encapsulates Fifa’s shortcomings in this area is that of the young Dutch women who were arrested while supporting Holland in their first World Cup match against Denmark. The 36 women, who were detained on the grounds of ambush marketing, were wearing scantily clad orange outfits with the word Bavaria, a beer company, on their tops. The arrest and detainment of these women highlights the pressure Fifa feels it’s under to protect its interests, in particular, its economic interests. By allowing only Budweiser, the official sponsor, to be sold and advertised at the stadiums in South Africa, Blatter is protecting Fifa’s pockets while bullying smaller brands in the process.

Not only is Fifa demonstrating its greed with situations like this, but also its bullying tactics by swiftly arresting these women, and trying two of them in World Cup courts specifically set up in South Africa for just such minor infringements. The main question remains as to why Fifa hasn’t decided to simply sue the beer company rather than threaten two innocent employees with up to six months in prison. If they really felt their monetary interests were in danger, than this would be the appropriate response. Instead, they’ve decided to bully small beer company Bavaria, while simultaneously giving it an enormous amount of publicity by calling more attention to the situation than was ever necessary.

This is a guest post by Diana Tenjes who enjoys writing about the benefits of massage for her website Massage Bed.

The World Cup is the most prestigious sporting event in the world. Occurring only every four years adds even more anticipation and excitement to a tournament teaming with intrigue, beauty, and elation from football fans around the world. Even the most uninterested or casual football viewers tune in to the World Cup. As the newest installment of the tournament arrives shortly in the form of World Cup 2010 South Africa, will it bring with it all the thrill and pomp and circumstance that its predecessors have? Many in the footballing universe believe there is cause for concern for its upcoming global competition.

Since 1930, 18 World Cups have been played throughout the world. Until now, the World Cup was hosted primarily in South America, Europe, North America, and most recently in Asia. The World Cup 2010 will denote a special occasion in the tournament’s illustrious 80 year history, as it will be hosted by an African nation for the first time.  While this was a bold and respectable choice by FIFA, as they have witnessed the tremendous growth of the sport on the continent over recent years, it has since been seen as problematic both logistically and economically.

After making the decision to hand the reigns of hosting to South Africa, mainly because FIFA believed it to be the country that could best develop the vast infrastructure needed to handle the tournament, concerns were immediately raised. Unlike recent host Germany, which already had many World Cup regulation stadia at its disposal, as well as ample accommodation and various public transportation options surrounding all the host cities, South Africa became a construction site after the announcement was made.  Building stadiums, new roads, hotels, and transportation to, from, and around each city is a big ask of any country. While the South African government assured FIFA they would have everything required for the tournament, many pointed out an even bigger problem throughout the country; crime.

According to Homeland Security Newswire, “South Africa leads the world in all manners of crime per capita. Just one example: murders. Between April 2008 and March 2009, the last period for which confirmed figures are available, there were 18,148 murders in South Africa, a country of 49,000,000 people. During the same period, the United States, with 307,000,000 people, had 16,204 murders.” These are staggering statistics for a country that was initially planning to welcome 2.5 million visitors. These figures were always seen as wildly optimistic, and with less than 60 days before the finals commence, FIFA expects fewer than 450,000 foreign fans will travel to South Africa for the games. The UK, normally one of the biggest traveling contingencies, have bought only 67,654 tickets, less than the number of fans that typically attend a Manchester United home game.

Rampant crime and violence, coupled with the distance needed to travel for many foreign fans has deterred a large portion of the normal world cup attendees from going.  Great distance from the Americas and Europe means higher costs for travel, and in difficult economic times around the world, this has become an even greater factor then when the announcement was first made. FIFA and South Africa have jointly swept pundit and fan concerns about safety and cost under the rug in order to go ahead with their grand plan of Africa hosting its first World Cup. What seemed like a forward movement in football’s history may turn out to be a major catastrophe as games could be played in half empty stadiums.

Many of the world’s leading players, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Robinho and Ji-Sung Park will take to the pitch in South Africa this summer wearing the most environmentally-friendly and technologically-advanced kit in football’s history. For the first time, all of Nike’s national teams, including Brazil, Portugal and The Netherlands, will be wearing jerseys made entirely from recycled polyester, each one produced from up to eight recycled plastic bottles.

“This summer in South Africa Nike will give footballers an edge by providing the newest and most innovative product for the game’s greatest players,” said Charlie Denson, President, Nike Brand. “With today’s announcement, we are equipping athletes with newly designed uniforms that not only look great and deliver performance benefits, but are also made with recycled materials, creating less impact on our environment.”

To make the 2010 national team kits, Nike’s fabric suppliers sourced discarded plastic bottles from Japanese and Taiwanese landfill sites and then melted them down to produce new yarn that was ultimately converted to fabric for the jerseys.

This process saves raw materials and reduces energy consumption by up to 30 percent compared to manufacturing virgin polyester. By using recycled polyester for its new range of national jerseys, Nike prevented nearly 13 million plastic bottles, totaling nearly 254,000 kg of polyester waste, from going into landfill sites. This amount would be enough to cover more than 29 football pitches. If the recycled bottles used to make the jerseys were laid end-to-end they would cover more than 3,000 kilometres, which is more than the entire coastline of South Africa.

The national team kits represent an important step in the process to make all Nike products more sustainable.

In addition, all the national team kits have been designed with each country’s national culture and identity in mind. Nike understands the pride athletes experience playing for their country so each kit has been designed to represent the heritage and unique football culture of the nine national teams.

Kit Innovations
Considering the environment doesn’t mean sacrificing the innovative performance elements of Nike’s kits. For this summer’s finals, the kits have been designed to keep players drier, cooler and more comfortable, allowing them to maintain an optimum body temperature and perform at their best on the pitch.

Improved Nike Dri-Fit fabric, now 13 percent lighter than previous Nike kit fabrications, helps keep players dry by drawing sweat to the outside of the garment where it evaporates. Ventilation zones have been placed on each side of the jersey to enhance breathability, and are combined with a fabric that increases air flow by up to seven percent compared to previous kits. Air can now pass across a player’s whole torso, keeping him cooler. These ventilation zones consist of up to 200 tiny laser cut holes which are backed by Nike’s innovative halo application. This treatment prevents ripping without reducing air flow.

The Nike kit shorts also have additional ventilation zones placed below the waistband and near the base of the spine, so this area prone to high sweat levels will now be significantly drier.

The jersey’s new double knit structure not only gives it a sleeker appearance, while offering 10 percent more stretch than the last Nike national team kit jerseys jerseys, but also boasts a new dynamic fit  cut to follow the natural contours of the body while still allowing for maximum airflow and movement.

Players will also incorporate the unique benefits of Nike Pro Combat into their respective national team kits. Featuring an engineered system of dress, Pro Combat includes Slider and Impact shorts for added protection against light impact and abrasion along with a therma Mock that protects players’ necks against harsh conditions.

The teams wearing Nike’s new national team jerseys in South Africa are: Brazil, The Netherlands, Portugal, USA, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, and Slovenia.

National team home kits will be available May 1st globally at local Nike store locations and nikefootball.com. Away national team kits will be available starting February 25th, 2010.

With everyone gearing up for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, Sony Ericsson is offering fans exclusive and exciting ways to support their team online and take them to victory in the first World Cup with social networking and media sharing at it’s heart

As excitement builds in anticipation of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa, Sony Ericsson, the Official Mobile Handset of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, introduces a new way for football fans in South Africa to get behind their team online through a unique social networking initiative. Continue Reading

The new PREDATOR®_X delivers significantly more power then ever before

adidas releases its PREDATOR®_X for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, a new football boot designed with French football legend Zinedine Zidane, that achieves the highest ball power, swerve and control ever achieved in the sport.

Almost every country embraces the number 10 in football to designate the best, most skilful player in the team. Just as Zidane is world-famous for having worn the number 10 in the French national side, the new PREDATOR®_X boot, the tenth generation of the PREDATOR® family which has led football for more than a decade, is tipped to augment the power to come in the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa. Continue Reading

What is the soccer blog web address?
www.soccerladuma.com

Who owns the blog?
Soccer-Laduma

How many people contribute content on the blog?
At the moment around 6 journalists, including myself Continue Reading

Springleap.com is a crowd sourcing company currently embracing the fire set alight by the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Springleap.com runs a new themed t-shirt design competition every two weeks and at the moment the competition been voted on is called “Football Fever”. The designs received by the current community have been astoundingly good. You can access competition on: http://www.springleap.com/designs/vote

1. The url to the design brief that was followed to enter the competition:
http://www.springleap.com/posts/view/football-fever

2. Who owns the blog?
Springleap.com

3. How many people contribute content on the blog?
The Springleap.com staff, the designers who entered the competition and the general public who vote and comment to choose the winning t-shirt design.

4. Is this a business operation or a hubby?
A business and young designers empowerment operation. Continue Reading

Primedia Sport has acquired the commercial rights to Johannesburg’s most famous football venues.

The appointed agent of Stadium Management South Africa, Primedia Sport is proud to be able to offer exciting new commercial and advertising opportunities at National Stadium South Africa (formerly known as Soccer City), Orlando Stadium and Dobsonville Stadium.

National Stadium is being newly reconstructed, in line with the significant role it will play in next year’s FIFA World Cup. It will boast a capacity of 94,700, and is widely regarded as the home of football in South Africa. Orlando Stadium is the new home ground of Kaizer Chiefs, South Africa’s best supported team, and the stadium was reopened after considerable reconstruction last year.

Dobsonville Stadium has been revamped to seat 24,000 passionate supporters. The stadium does not only host football games, it is an athletics venue as well. Dobsonville Stadium is the home ground of Moroka Swallows.

Along with Rand Stadium, Orlando Stadium and Dobsonville Stadium, both in Soweto, have been set aside as official training venues by the City of Johannesburg.

The opportunities for companies and brands to align themselves with these famous sites and reach the hundreds of thousands of spectators that they draw include:

• Stadium naming rights
• Sponsorships (partners and suppliers)
• Stadium advertising
• Suite bookings

Soccer City in construction for 2010

By getting involved, clients have the opportunity to reap the benefits of association with the sports hosted at these venues, gain substantial media exposure, and / or leverage the direct benefits of hospitality or preferred supplier status by signing up as an official supplier or partner. Continue Reading

Imagine thousands of soccer fans blowing Vuvuzela’s simultaneously for a full 30 seconds before the start of a match? 300 volunteers to help make it all possible….and a new Guinness World Record is set.

On Thursday, 23 July 2009, Vodacom will enhance its status as the voice behind the teams, when it spearheads a Guinness World Record (GWR) attempt at the Vodacom Challenge Derby, at Nelson Mandela stadium in Port Elizabeth.
At this soccer crescendo, soccer fans will make their mark in history when they are counted as the voice behind the new world record. Three minutes before kick off, fans will be signaled to blow their vuvuzelas simultaneously, for 30 seconds.

The first 20 000 fans to enter the stadium will receive a complimentary limited edition Vodacom Guinness World Record vuvuzela. Continue Reading

Kaizer Chiefs have long been hailed as South Africa’s leading club for being both the country’s most successful and most supported team.

The club has also become a rite of passage for young, great players to wear the club’s famous Kaizer Chiefs gold jersey.  For the 2009/2010 season their new home and away kits will continue to be a desired item, capable of inspiring, joyful and brilliant football both on and off-field.

In keeping the authentic football passion alive, Nike and Kaizer Chiefs officially unveiled their new 2009/2010 home and away kits on field at the revamped Orlando Stadium in Soweto – both iconic destinations considered by many to be the home of football in South Africa.

The notable changes to the new home and away kit will give the Amakhosi a bold and striking appearance to pursue even more success. Continue Reading