It was a rather ugly and petulant World Cup final. Johan Cruyff has denounced the Dutch tactics as ‘anti-football’. But South African president Jacob Zuma has proclaimed his citizens as ‘the real stars’ of the tournament.
It was a rather ugly and petulant World Cup final. Johan Cruyff has denounced the Dutch tactics as ‘anti-football’. But South African president Jacob Zuma has proclaimed his citizens as ‘the real stars’ of the tournament.
The IMF has already upped its forecast for growth in the South African economy this year, but many of those who built the stadiums are now out of work. The organisation of the tournament has, however, been a great success and boosted South Africa’s international reputation. The total number of World Cup visitors is estimated at 370,000.
Just over 3 million match tickets were sold, making up 95 per cent of the capacity of the 10 stadiums. Empty seats were often seen, but Fifa puts this down to some groups not making use of their hospitality tickets. Fifa said it expected the global television audience to exceed the 700m that watched the 2006 final. The US has seen a 50 per cent rise in viewers for the tournament as a whole compared with four years ago.