South Africa 2010: Great goal or Horrible Miss?

Who should play in goal? Will Rooney's groin strain recur? And just how can England be so bad at penalties?

Yes it's that time again. All other news will hardly get a look in during the following month as the country goes mad for the World Cup. If you think it's bad here though imagine what the atmosphere is like in South Africa; the host nation.

This will be the first time the competition will be held in Africa, a continent which has given so much to the game. It is though also a continent which is ravished by war, famine and poverty and often engenders a feeling of pity more than anything else. The World Cup is a chance to begin to move away from this and earn a new-found respect from the rest of the world.

South Africa undoubtedly has a lot to be proud of considering that only 16 years ago the African National Congress (ANC) inherited a formerly apartheid state with no money and a bubbling racial hostility that was ready to explode at the drop of a hat. Now the country is host to a wide variety of private companies, banks and financial markets making it Africa's largest economy and the world's 24th largest. It has even rode the recent global financial crisis with some ease thanks to fantastic mineral wealth.

Some are more critical of hosting the World Cup in South Africa, including some of the most venerable writers of the game such as Brian Glanville. He sees this as an attempt by the feckless Sepp Blatter to foist the competition upon a continent which isn't ready.

Outside of the world of football politics, this argument retains its validity. GDP per person stands at a lowly $10,000, less than a quarter of the American figure, and this is distributed in a less than even fashion. Most blacks are reliant on the pitiful government support meaning they live in shacks located in crime-ridden townships outside the main cities; a murder is committed once every half hour. With poor sanitation and 43% of the population living on $2 a day it is unsurprising that the country ranks a measly 129th on the UN Human Development Index, 12th in Africa.

Unemployment is also a huge challenge with the official rate at 25%; the highest in the world. There is also a clear dividing line on race (30% of blacks are unemployed compared 6% of whites) which only serves to highlight the elephant in the room. After 350 years of white supremacy it would have been foolish to think that the issue would disappear overnight. One only has to think back to the murder of Eugène Terre'Blanche in April and the tension this caused.

Compared with 20 years ago though this is nothing ad people often forget this. South Africa is very much on the up even if it has to make a few mistakes along the way. Many see the dominance of the corrupt ANC as a threat to this but under constant scrutiny from opposition parties, the press, the courts, unions and NGOs it seems unlikely South Africa will go the same way as neighbouring Zimbabwe. This years World Cup should be seen as an opportunity to not only celebrate how far South Africa has come but to encourage it to go further and act as a talisman for her continent. As football correspondent Mark Gleeson puts it: "it is a rare opportunity that would be criminal to miss."

Coming up short

Silvio Berlusconi hosting the G8 summit only seems to enforce the idea that the meeting is little more than a jolly boys (and girl) outing. I'm not saying it's going to be a typical Berlusconi party with topless 18 year old girls but the Italian host only makes the meeting more farcical than it already is.

Arguably this is a heck of a shame as the top 8 countries wield a lot of power, particularly in relation to overseas aid. The G8 nations promised in 2005 to deliver $22 billion in aid by 2010 but four years since this commitment only $7 billion has been spent. Organisations such as Bono's ONE blame this on countries like Italy and France who have only given 3% and 7% respectively of their pledged commitment but one has to remember that one of the other major talking points in L'Aquila, the global financial crisis has put pressure on all countries.

However, whilst the recession is a cause for concern in the developed world it can be a matter of life and death in Africa. Overall growth in sub-Saharan GDP is set to drop from 5.5% in 2008 to 1.5% in 2009. This is better than a lot of countries but when considering population will continue to grow at around 3% this is potentially disastrous with 53 million additional Africans living on less than $2 a day.

From a broader economic view this may be a blessing in disguise. More and more politicians from around the world are questioning the worth of giving to a continent which loses $150 billion through corruption a year and many economists believe that aid leaves African leaders unmotivated to make changes. Despite this, with businesses failing in both America and Western Europe I would hope that more venture capitalists look towards Africa for a more sustainable source of income for various sub-Saharan nations. Foreign investment in Africa is only around 1.7% at the moment but the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts an increase by 16.8% this year.

One success story is Liberia, a country torn apart by civil war in 1993 and plagued by political instability until 2005 is now reforming. Companies such as BRE are investing in rubber plantations. Now Liberia's predicted GDP per capita growth for the next decade is 6.3% compared with -0.5% for the last decade.

So my advice for the G8 leaders? Enjoy the sunshine.