According to a colleague writing elsewhere, the past month's extravaganza in South Africa was a disaster, the worst in memory, because of the “atrocious” vuvuzela, African winter, apparent no-shows by tourists, and “commercial and financial failure”.
Take aside FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke's claim that the 2010 World Cup “increased our income by 50 per cent since 2006 in Germany” and that winter in Johannesburg is slightly more tolerable than its equivalent in Juneau, Alaska, the real issue here is offering a condemning verdict from, of all places, the luxury of Sydney.
Worst World Cup ever? Try actually visiting South Africa to discover the reality.
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Or perhaps try visiting Uganda, where events that occurred simultaneously with the World Cup Final really gave ownership to worst World Cup ever.
At least 64 people were killed when bombs ripped through venues hosting World Cup Final TV viewing parties in the Ugandan capital of Kampala.
The first explosion detonated at 10.25pm local time at the Ethiopian Village restaurant, a venue popular with foreigners, killing 15 people.
About 50 minutes later, just as the two teams from Spain and Holland were contemplating extra time, twin blasts tore through Lugogo rugby club, killing 49 people.
Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni called the attacks “backwards and cowardly.”
“If they want to fight they should find soldiers, not attack people who are just enjoying themselves,” he said. “We shall look for them and get them, wherever they are.”
Ugandan police officials told media they suspected a militant Islamic group from Somalia, called Al Shabab, could be responsible for the bombings.
“We can't rule anything out,” said Kale Kayihura, Uganda's police inspector general, at the scene of one of the attacks. “This was obviously terrorism, from the way it was targeted at World Cup watchers in public places.”
Al Shabab ban music, dancing and sports, have links to Al Qaeda.
Accordng to The New York Times, the group has been terrorizing the Somali public, “chopping off hands, stoning people to death and banning TV, music and even bras in their quest to turn Somalia into a seventh-century-style Islamic state”.
It is this that makes 2010 the worst World Cup ever – not a buzzing vuvuzela.
This and the accompanying return to the 21st-Century reality that all the world does not, in fact, love each other.
That the Brilliant Orange of Holland, Furious Red of Spain, and South Africa's very own complicated but beautiful Rainbow Nation was just something of a four-week aberration.
Welcome back to reality.
