As referee Horacio Elizondo from Argentina at the Olympic stadium of Berlin blew his final whistle on 9. July it was the end of a fantastic summer-tale: the Football World Championship 2006. Books about the impressive spectacle have been published and a film is in the making, but now dreams about a Football World Championship 2010 in Germany again may become reality as Sepp Blatter, President of the International Football Association FIFA strictly criticised the South African delays in organizing the event.

The construction of the three stadiums in Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, which were ordered by the organisation committee at the architect’s office "gmp" in Berlin has still not begun as well as the other new stadium building in Nelspruit which is nothing more than a pipe dream at the moment. In addition the six existing stadiums in Johannesburg (two), Rustenburg, Bloemfontein, Pretoria and Polokwane have to be enlarged and modernized. Due to the traditional holidays of the South African building industry from November to December the construction will probably not start this year.

The project in Cape Town was halted after the new mayor Helen Zille, who took up office in March 2006, was confronted with an unsure availability of finance for the 200 million euro project and the question how many poor people in the Townships could be provided with clean water for this amount of money. The financing problem does not only occur in Cape Town, the construction allowance of the South African government which has been doubled and is now 627 million is not enough and the problem of what stadiums would be used for after the World Championships has also not been solved. Various concerns of the media, in this instance the ZDF who still prepare television transmittals, regarding the provision of appropriate technical support by the Organisation Committee have increased. In addition deficits concerning the infrastructure, such as the lack of public transport systems and high crime rates have not been tackled to date. Concern is growing that South Africa is unable to cope with an event of this magnitude.

Next week Sepp Blatter will once again travel to South Africa to explain the importance of the Football World Championships to the Organization Committee and to appeal to the Committee to start with the construction of the new stadiums as soon as possible. Passing back the World Championship would not be the first time in the history of mega sport events. The Olympic Winter Games 1976, which should have taken place in Denver, United States of America, was passed back to Innsbruck and also Colombia had to pass back the Football World-Championships in 1986 in favour of Mexico.

Nevertheless it would be a disgrace to Sepp Blatter, if South Africa has to pass back the World Championship, who had already agitated for South Africa as Organiser of the World Championships 2006 and also wiped out all doubts at that time. It’s a matter of prestige for Sepp Blatter who wanted to show that Africa is ripe for hosting such an event.

There are only a small number of countries which are in a position to organize the World Championships 2010 instead of South Africa. Besides Germany, the United States of America, arranging the World Championships in 1994 were named as a possible alternative. Also England could provide the necessary stadium structure. For Australia which ogles of organizing a Football World Championship the remaining time of three and a half years is really too short, Brasilia organizer of the World Championship in 2014 has more problems than South Africa at the moment, for Japan and South Korea financial deficits after organizing the Championships in 2002 were too high, stadiums in Switzerland and Austria which host the European Football Championships in 2008 are too small and stadiums in European football nations, such as Italy or Spain are too old. If South African does not hurry up, the cards will be shuffled again and maybe the summer-tale of the Football World Championships 2006 in Germany will be continued in four years time.

Are the Football-Shoes South Africa should carry as organiser of the next Football World Championship too big? The Shoes seen in the picture were displayed in Berlin as part of the "walk of ideas" initiated by the Foreign Office of Germany.