What if we had hosted one of the competing teams here in Botswana? This kept racing in my mind as I watched the Matlho-A-Phage TV programme this past week. The programme had hosted the Director of Sports, Falcon Sedimo and an officer from Botswana Football Association. The two men were at pains to explain our benefits from the World Cup, if there are any at all.
The two technocrats explained quite well that to host Brazil or any team is an expensive undertaking. Firstly there are appearance fees and these are international players who do not come cheap. They further informed us that Zimbabwe had recently played a friendly match with Brazil and that the Zimbabweans paid approximately P10 million for the friendly game with Brazil. Before you fall off your chair, let's discuss why this was a masterstroke on the part of Robert Mugabe.
Why we should have chosen to host Brazilian team and paid any price to do it.
Much of the history of the World Cups can be told by telling the history of Brazil in the World cups. Brazil is the only country to participate in all 17 World cups. Brazil has been five times champions. Several of the best players of the history of football were Brazilian and most of them left their register in the World Cups. The Brazilian team has a multitude of fans, worldwide. It therefore goes without saying that when you host Brazil, you are hosting the world. Furthermore, Brazil has the largest black populace, it comes first even before Nigeria in terms of numbers. Furthermore, it has produced the most celebrated football star, Pele. It is reported that Pele is the first soccer player to achieve massive international acclaim. Personally, I got to know about Pele and about Brazilian football long before I got to know about FIFA as a sporting body and I believe it goes for a lot of people like me. His name is regularly mentioned today, more than a quarter century after his retirement.
