world cup in South Africa....

[R1Geezer]

On the news last night they did a piece on the crime in South Africa and interviewed several mugger types who said they would be treating this like Xmas come early. You also have British firms offerring stab proof vests with England Badging etc. Presumably other nations are doing the same. Is it wise to be sending thousands of tourists into the Crime capitl of the world? what where FIFA thinking. What happenns when the fans all get together and start lynching the muggers? The whole thing is asking for trouble, comments please.

[VHG]

I bet you could do a similar piece about London but replace "World Cup" with "Olympics".

I bet there are load of "mugger types" who are rubbing their hands with glee with the though of the Olympics coming to London.

[Booldawg]

VHG is right. 'They' are the same the world over.

[jake-the-peg]

Pretty much the same in any large metropolis with a sudden influx of people for a large sporting event.

Article on Crime concerns on Rio Olympics
http://latimesblogs.l...for-rio-2016-bid.html

[R1Geezer]

crime, especially street crime is much, much greater in SA cities. BGB each though for irrelevancy!

[jake-the-peg]

And Rio is a shining example of legality?

Come off it!

[McMouse]

I used to visit J'burg on business. White families wouldn't dream of leaving their fortified homes unarmed. SA is a very dangerous place and p1ssed-up footie fans will be an obvious target.

[Gromit]

Platinum Gromit Badge for you Geezer.

Crime is bad in Johannesburg, but mainly in the predominantly poor areas, nowhere near the stadiums at Soccer City and Ellis Park. It is like saying the European Cup Final should not be staged in Manchester because people get shot in Moss side.

As for the other 9 venues outside of Johannesburg, the crime is not as bad, and again, the stadia are away from the worse areas.

I would be more worried about the BNP thugs who follow England, and their probable treatment by the South African Police if they step out of line.

[R1Geezer]

OK so SA is not one one the most crime ridden countries then and all those car jackings and muggings are just the Daily Mail going over the top, and those interviews with black thugs are put up by the BBC and all the crime stats are fixed, silly me! Why are pretty much all civilised South Africans forced to live behind a ring of steel security? Yes you can get mugged in any city but I've never known the Stab proof vest supliers boost production and start flogging logo'd vests before. Rather than the usual lefty na na nana na, yaa boo stuff, can you not see that this really is a dangerous place? Crime is out of control, Christ I would board my dog there.

[youngmafbog]

R1, are you surprised at the comments from the resident pinko's. These are the same people that say 'what broken britain?'

It is NOT the same the world over and it was stupid to arrange it here. No doubt pressured into it by politics.

[Gromit]

youngmafbog

It is the WORLD cup and as such should the finals should be staged in each population continent of the world. Europe, North America, South America, Asia have previous staged finals, leaving Africa (the next one) and Australia.

South Africa has already successfully staged the Rugby World Cup and the Cricket World Cup without any problems. But you have read it in the Mail and seen it on Sky, so a bloodbath definitely awaits football fans this summer.

[jake-the-peg]

Yes Geezer it's those damn pinkos who insist on evidence and fact rather than inuendo and biased suposition!

You know the ones who rely on facts and figures rather than what they heard from a bloke in the bar down the local Tory club

Damn their eyes!

[Sandy-Wroe]

How many of the cricket fans have been mugged? That might give an indication of how dangerous it will be for football fans.

[Davethedog]

There have been a number of articles in the quality press about the level of crime in South Africa and the fact that as you say South Africa state it won't be a problem.

However a friend from South Africa states that although the stadia are built there is no infrastructure and the danger of people wandering into areas where they shouldn't is high.

As far as the rugby world cup go's it bears no comparison I am unsure as to how many went to South Africa for that but levels of crime have grown since and a great many more people "should" be going than that. The football world cup is the biggest sporting event in the world bar none - normaly.

However if as was stated you read about these things. Germany have sold less than 1,000 tickets, the Dutch are asking for more time to sell theres, and England have sent back thousands of thier allocation' of those bought many are duplicate with friends expecting high demand asking for the same games and all getting ticket.

The African nation have only sold 100k and they are saying that more South Africans will watch England than thier own team.

All in all its looking bad for F.I.F.A

[R1Geezer]

so Jake are the stats wrong then? is SA not violent capital of the reasonably civilised world? Dam that BBC propaganda.

[R1Geezer]

The comparison with rugby and Cricket are flawed, both those would amount to about 100th of the visitors for the football world cup and almost all of them would have been on organised trips getting coaches/planes eveywhere. As someone above said the infrastucture is non existant and would not normally have been considered a suitable place for the world cup, so I can imagine there will be a lot of people wandering into dodgy areas etc, but even the non dodgy areas are dodgy to some extent. Also back in 1995 for the RWC then the country was fairly new in it's current form and crime hadn't reached it's epidemic proportions as it has now. You may ask how I know this, well I work with a lot of South Africans and they are bailing out. They fear another Rhodesia. Many are in the prrocess of Naturalisation in Britain. The ones that live their have to be constantly vigilant and surround themselves with security. Before you ask, noI have not been, I just don't trust the place.

[Gromit]

Who wants to go to South Africa anyway, my Daily Mail World Atlas says it is full of AIDS.