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In their exclusive Club Africa columns, top coach Foppe de Haan and international goalkeeper Hans Vonk give regular updates on events in and around the World Cup finals in South Africa. This week Hans travelled from Johannesburg to Cape Town to see the Dutch enjoy themselves at the ‘Oranje’ campsite. He also explains how the World Cup has stimulated various social projects. |
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 The penultimate week of the World Cup
With the World Cup in its penultimate week, France and Italy have gone home licking their wounds, while the remaining countries assess their chances of reaching the semis. Or even making it to the final itself…
Despite the elimination of Bafana Bafana, the enthusiasm of the South African football fans has remained undiminished. This has been boosted by the government’s ongoing emphasis on how vital it is that the country’s inhabitants make the last weeks of the event a great success, including by attending the matches of other teams. “It’s a shame that the Bafana Bafana are out but the players have made the nation proud,” is the theme of a campaign on the radio. The countries that are receiving the most local support have been England and Germany, both of which have historical ties with South Africa. Another heavily supported country is Ghana, the only African nation to have survived the group phase. I still believe that Spain and Brazil will go far, and Holland have a good outside chance.
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 Stormy weather?
If you know how rough the weather around the African south cape can be, you’ll realise just how lucky the football fans in Cape Town were this past week. There was no sign of the usual winter storms and showers. Yes, we had snow in the mountains and even Table Mountain was covered under a white blanket for a while, but in the Cape Town Stadium at sea level, the spectators enjoyed a mild 20 to 25 degrees, clear blue skies and hardly any wind.
The Dutch football fans staying at the Oranje campsite have been especially blessed by these summery conditions in the South African wintertime. These intrepid Hollanders followed their football heroes all the way from Durban to the country’s west coast, covering a distance of 1,600 kilometres along the coastline to see the Dutch team play Cameroon. It was quite a spectacle to see the parade of 175 mainly orange-coloured vehicles, including tents, campers, caravans, double-deckers and more. And the journey went very smoothly, exactly as it should during a World Cup.
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 The World Cup is having positive effects on a smaller scale
I was again reminded of the benefits of hosting and organising a World Cup event as I watched the Dutch national team donate a Cruyff Court to the Hillbrow township in Johannesburg. This included an artificial grass football field, dressing rooms for the young players from the township and a small office for the WorldCoaches programme, in which the Dutch football association (KNVB) trains locals to become football and life skills coaches. WorldCoaches is also a key element of the joint Holland-Belgium bid to organise the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.
The World Cup is also having positive effects on a smaller scale. My co-columnist Foppe de Haan and I are ambassadors in South Africa for a development foundation called SCORE. This uses sports to teach youngsters sports, management and life skills, giving them a chance to develop themselves and contribute to their local community. One of the SCORE projects, in cooperation with popular Dutch TV programme EenVandaag, has been the establishment of a multi-cultural football team (1V United) with kids from Cape Town and surroundings coached by Foppe de Haan. The team has been together for a while now and this impressive educational project received a great deal of coverage on Dutch TV. This week there was a football match between 1V United and footballers staying at the Oranje campsite. It was all great fun, filmed by many TV crews and aired in various countries.
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 Ambassador for Bafanakids
In this regard, the World Cup serves as a catalyst that makes things happen. I also serve as an ambassador for Bafanakids, a social project linking football to the fight against poverty. As part of the project, companies can sponsor a football team of township youths for the relatively low amount of € 1,500. More important than the kit and footballs for the team is the guidance the kids receive from the organisers of Bafanakids. Via the programme, coaches can take part in a football clinic and also benefit from the good relations with local football club Ajax Cape Town. Some Bafanakids teams have been invited to play football at the World Cup fanfests organised in Cape Town; a wonderful initiative that is very much appreciated by the kids. |
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 New season has already started for Ajax Cape Town
While the World Cup football is still in full flow, the players of Ajax Cape Town have now started to prepare for the new season. It was a strange experience to know that global football heroes are playing in brand-new stadiums while just around the corner we are preparing for the South African football league. With Foppe as coach and myself as goalkeeper, we are starting slowly, with some endurance training and ball exercises. Foppe is not the sort of coach who drills his team on the tracks. We do a lot of dribbling, practising shots on goal and playing mini-matches with small or large goals. Whether it is football as part of the World Cup or at the level of the South African league, we are all fans of the same beautiful game. |
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