A Developing Nation After the World Cup
I. Introduction
The FIFA World Cup is the largest and most popular sporting event in the world, accumulating over one billion television viewers worldwide. This event takes place every four years in a host country selected by the FIFA Executive Board Committee. The year is 2014, nearly four years after the 2010 World Cup was held in the developing nation of South Africa. This paper aims to support the claim that hosting the 2010 World Cup significantly changed the national image of South Africa and provided both direct and indirect economic benefits. While it was not a “cure-all” for the struggling economy it was deemed a large success. Perks of hosting this event include: being the center of global attention during the month-long extravaganza, potential for billions of dollars in revenue, and the construction of new infrastructure. Hosting the World Cup was still a daunting task for South Africa. With the exception of Mexico, every World Cup in the past fifty years has been held in a developed country. There is always great economic risk involved with the host country and this was especially pertinent for South Africa. Despite these issues, hosting the World Cup still had an immense cultural impact on South Africa and reimaged the nation on the global stage.
II. The Shadow of an Old Public Image
The image of a nation is of substantial importance with regard to its tourism policy. South Africa used the 2010 FIFA World Cup to reimage itself from the negative image from which it was previously associated. Africa is a continent rich in culture and resources, yet it hosts only one-tenth of the tourists in comparison to that of Europe. In the past two centuries, the continent of Africa has ta...
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Kaplan, Daniel. "The Soccer Theory of Globalization." Aidwatchers.com. Aid Watchers, 15 July 2009. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
Hosting the Olympics comes with many perks for such as, prestige, the creation of new facilities and countless amounts of benefits. With so many things the Olympics has to offer, there can be numerous reasons why countries compete to be elected as the hosting country for the Olympics. The most common reason countries want to host the Olympic is because of its potential ability to improve the country’s economy significantly. With the entire world participating in the Olympics, the hosting country can market...
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The FIFA World Cup is a global spectacle that captures the attention of millions of people every four years. More than 200 nations are members of FIFA and they compete for the honor of being worthy to play for the Cup. There is no second place, and there are no consolation prizes. It is the ultimate dream of all football players to hold the golden cup as a champion of the world. As the largest sporting event in the world, the World Cup embodies the best attributes that lead people to love the sports they watch and play. Sports stimulate national economies, lead people to experience other cultures through international competitions, and promote world peace by bringing nations together in friendly competition. Even though some people disagree with these points by assuming sports are a waste of money, put athletes at risk due to injuries and while playing in other nations, and causing disagreement between countries. Evidence will be provided to show that sports have a positive impact on society.
The commercialization of sports is illustrated by the amount of money that is involved in sport. Stakeholders in the sector are using lots of money to improve their performances with an objective of making profit. Sport has changed its form and dimension and longer only a source of entertainment, but a...