The Lost Legacy Fund: Fifa Still Owe South Africa R550m After Record World Cup

One year after the World Cup’s big kick-off at Soccer City, South Africans are still waiting for any sign of the £50million (R550million) promised by FIFA’s 2010 Legacy Programme.

While recently re-elected president Sepp Blatter glides serenely into a fourth term in charge boasting of FIFA’s record £1.24bn (R12billion) profit from a superb 2010 tournament in the Rainbow Nation, the money he promised as a legacy after Africa’s first World Cup – which FIFA said would benefit grass roots football as well as education, health and social projects – remains unpaid.

Fund spokesman Greg Fredericks confirmed: "None of the £50million has been spent - not one cent. The money is still in Zurich. The delay is simply down to the amount of time it takes to establish legally recognised bodies for handling this amount of money."

Blatter, 75, unveiled his much-hyped fund in December 2010, insisting: "We always said the first World Cup on African soil should leave a lasting legacy. We trusted South Africa and that trust was well founded.

“Fifa are not a circus where we pitch our tent and remove them when the event is over. Fifa will leave a lasting legacy for the youth of South Africa thanks to this successful World Cup.

"This fund is also a reward for South Africans for having been such great hosts. We always said that the first World Cup on African soil should leave a lasting sports and social legacy. This trust is yet another concrete achievement in this area."

Although the £60m fund, administered by accountants Ernst and Young, is reserved for a wide range of public benefit initiatives, Blatter confirmed that only £10m had been actually been used - to build the extravagant South Africa Football Association (SAFA) building next to the Soccer City, where Spain beat Holland to lift their first World Cup last July.

South African president, Jacob Zuma said at the time: "We wanted a World Cup that would contribute to social cohesion and national pride that would enhance African solidarity and improve the country's global reputation. Our expectations were exceeded.

"Now remains the difficult but most important task of ensuring a lasting legacy and to build world-class national teams both at youth and senior level. This legacy trust is an important contribution towards that goal."

With FIFA still reeling over bribery claims surrounding Blatter’s unopposed re-election and the decision to give Qatar the 2022 World Cup, Britain’s best selling tabloid The Sun quotes shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Ivan Lewis as saying: "This is another example of poor leadership. South Africa faces many challenges and FIFA should release the money as a matter of urgency."

Labour MP Michael Dugher added: "FIFA is a shameful shambles. It made a vast sum from South Africa and has a duty to plough that money back as soon as possible."

The High Court has to rubber-stamp the setting up of a trust to decide how to distribute the remaining cash. Best estimates predict a further five-month wait for any pay-out from the Legacy fund – while the cash remains in FIFA’s Swiss bank accounts gaining interest.

The Sun also quotes lawyer Richard Spoor - representing locals in Matsafeni, where the 41,000-seater Mbombela Stadium was built on land belonging to the local people – as saying: "Even now there's no adequate water supply and the living conditions are totally unsanitary.

"The roads are unpaved and there's no proper sewage system. The conditions are unhealthy and frankly quite deplorable."

Who on earth is Neal Collins (nealcol on Twitter)? See www.nealcollins.co.uk.

2010 World Cup final preview: And the winner is... ubuntu

Today we should be talking football. It’s the World Cup final on Sunday, a billion people will be watching Soccer City and Holland or Spain will become the first new winners since France in 1998.

But suddenly, as this vibrant tournament draws to a close, I feel the need to talk ubuntu.

There are a lot of translations of this curious African word. The closest I can get appeared in the South African newspaper the Daily Dispatch this week. It says ubuntu is “the acceptance of others as parts of the sum total of each of us”. Some might just call it mutual respect. Others see it as a kind of warm, all-embracing African love story.

My dad, born in Portsmouth in 1933 but a resident of Pretoria since 1970, says ubuntu is: “Treating everyone like you’re all one big family.”

And that’s what we’ve had here isn’t it? From the opening concert at Soweto’s Super Stadium to that moment the World Cup turns orange or red on Sunday night. At outpouring of African affection.

Don’t confuse that with the massive support for Bafana Bafana early in this tournament. Or the outpouring of grief when fellow Africans Ghana were cruelly put out of the tournament at the quarter-final stage. It may have something to do with the incredible lack of animosity between fans here, the lack of real problems in a nation still growing.

Ubuntu is that feeling you get when you’re lost in South Africa expecting trouble from the group of lads up ahead... only to find gleaming smiles and offers of help.

Ubuntu is when you’re standing in a lengthy cue for the park-and-ride at Polokwane, and everybody wants to talk about Wayne Rooney rather than whinge about the delay.

Ubuntu is when you’re in Sandton trying to pay for parking, and the dodgy looking fellow in overalls comes over and uses his change to get you out.

Ubuntu is when you cower as a local comes rushing towards you in the dark outside Soccer City... and hugs you in sympathy because you’re wearing the Three Lions.

Ubuntu is when dozens gather round to help you blow your vuvuzela properly, and at the right time.

Ubuntu occurred even before the big kick-off on June 11 when, before the tournament began, Pretoria’s Blue Bulls were forced to play their Super 15 rugby final in Soweto because Loftus Versfeld had been booked by FIFA. Ubuntu reigned supreme for a fortnight among folk who have barely heard the term.

And when Adrian van der Bijl, a the prominent local businessman who owns Irene Lodge, the home of the USA in this tournament, left his mobile phone in a shebeen and thought it was lost, ubuntu ran through him when his wife’s cell rang. The shebeen workers had found his phone.

Ubuntu is Africa, despite a thousand years of pain.

American Shari Cohen, the international development worker who very publicly came out against this costly World Cup before it began, ended up admitting: “To say that I have been blown away at the hospitality South Africa has shown the rest of the world would be an understatement.”

And on the subject of ubuntu, she said, in an open letter published on the Huffington Post website: “South Africans are drinking deeply from the cup of humanity that has been brought to their doorstep. I would never imagine that an American World Cup or Olympics would ever be this welcoming to the rest of the world. And that saddens me for the state of my home country, but it also makes me feel the pride of the South African people.

“I will be leaving a little piece of myself here in South Africa. I just hope I have learned enough to bring back a little piece of ubuntu to my homeland ...

“When I think of ubuntu and my recent experiences here, I think America has much to learn from Africa in general, in terms of living as a larger village; and as human beings who are all interconnected with each other, each of us having an effect on our brothers and sisters.”

A total over nearly 30 billion people have watched this World Cup. Did they feel ubuntu across the airwaves? What happened to all those predictions about crime and bloodbaths? Was that ubuntu at work?

Ultimately, though I love Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben and long for Robin van Persie to score, I don’t care that much about Holland winning. Given Paul the Octopus and his muscle-bound support for Spain, perhaps this whole World Cup was never really about who triumphs on the football field.

It matters not. There has been only one winner. Africa. Ubuntu.

Careless defending, Carles scores: Spain 1 Germany 0 and we're in for a first-time World Cup winner on Sunday

In the end, amid all the hair gel, the untidy locks of Carles Puyol decided things at the Moses Mabhida Stadium. But mark my words, this was a bad result for this World Cup. Spain survive by strangling the life out of their opponents. Germany would have been far worthier final opponents.

While the sleek thoroughbreds knocked the ball backwards and forwards, it was left to the long-haired lover from Le Poblo de Segur to give Spain the 73^rd-minute edge over Germany in a dreadfully tight World Cup semi-final.

He’s only 5ft 10in, but Carles loves careless marking in the opposition penalty area. After endless pontificating in Durban, it took a decisive head to put the European Champions through to their first ever World Cup final against the Netherlands at Soccer City on Sunday.

Without Thomas Mueller, Germany simply didn’t look capable of breaking down the well-organised (and dare I say boring) Spaniards. One Lucas Podolski chance, well saved by Iker Casillas in the 68^th minute, was all they had to offer in a game dominated by the luvvies from La Liga.

Spain should have won it comfortably. Shot after shot flew wide as La Rojas painstakingly pulled the young Germans apart. And whatever happens now, we will have brand new World Cup winners – neither the Dutch nor the Spanish have ever lifted the Jules Rimet trophy before.

In fact, Spain had never got beyond five quarter-finals before this crusade, which started with the curious blip against lowly Switzerland nearly a month ago.

Puyol, who moved from his village club to Barcelona in 1997, had won 89 caps and scored just three goals before last night’s effort. In 331 games for his beloved Barca he has managed just six goals.

But statistics mean nothing when there’s a World Cup to be won, history to be made.

The man who started his footballing career as a goalkeeper was a striker when he came to Barcelona. He got his big chance under Louis van Gaal as a right back but by 2005 he was voted best centre-back in Europe.

By then he had spent five years playing internationally for La Rojas and, with Barca team-mate Gerard Pique, he has made this Spanish side difficult to break down.

Up front, David Villa – ear-marked for the golden boot with five goals so far – was so quiet, boss Vincente Del Bosque turned to the out-of-form Fernando Torres in an attempt to open things up. But he always had Puyol. The poodle among the greyhounds, he ended German dreams.

Now we can sit back and prepare to witness the first European win on a foreign continent in the history of the World Cup.

Curiously, an octopus called Paul has been predicting these things in his aquarium throughout the tournament. Germany certainly ran out of legs in Durban. I’ll put five squid on Holland to win the final though.

Neal Collins is in South Africa to witness the greatest World Cup of all and promote his first novel, A GAME APART, which predicts so much of what has happened at South Africa 2010. For more information see www.nealcollins.co.uk.