Siphiwe Tshabalala celebrates scoring the opening goal of the World Cup (Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images)

What happens on July 12^th? It’s a question that’s been asked from the moment South Africa was awarded the World Cup. Once it’s all over, what will happen to the stadiums? What will happen to the economy?

There’s another question that hasn’t been asked quite so much, yet for football fans, it’s rather important: what will happen to South African football?

The country’s Premier Football League (PSL) is swimming in money. It has the seventh largest TV deal of any domestic league in the world and thanks to the World Cup it now has some rather nice stadiums to play in. There is just one problem: while football may be popular in South Africa, South African football is not. There is only one game that brings in the crowds: the Soweto derby, Orlando Pirates vs Kaizer Chiefs. Most other matches, even if Pirates or Chiefs are one of the two teams playing, struggle to attract many fans. Attendances in the low thousands are the norm.

One of the biggest criticisms of the World Cup was that ordinary South African football fans were priced out. But this now provides an opportunity. Many of those South Africans who did buy tickets were not traditional football fans. Most of those I spoke to on my visits to Football City, Ellis Park and Loftus Versfeld said it was their first time. The PSL needs to take advantage and they should offer this incentive: bring a used World Cup ticket to any PSL match and get in free. You went to watch four World Cup matches? Congratulations, you get to watch four PSL games free.

Most of those fans won’t take up the offer, finding the prospect of Platinum Stars versus Jomo Cosmos not quite as enticing as Brazil versus Holland. Many who do won’t come back again. But some will. They will get bitten by the bug in just the same way as every other football fan in the world did after going to their first match. They just need a little prod.

There are other things the PSL should consider, including restricting the sale of tickets to Pirates v Chiefs matches to those who have gone to at least one other match that season. They will also need a good advertising campaign, but again, that shouldn’t be too difficult. The stars who shone for Bafana – Siphiwe Tshabalala, Itumeleng Khune and Bongani Khumalo – all play for local clubs. There should be posters up now, encouraging fans to come and see the stars of the World Cup when the new season starts next month.

There is one other way to draw in the crowds, and this could also have an effect on the standard of football. South African football could do with a David Beckham, a star player who will add thousands to the gate wherever he plays. The chances of the original Beckham swapping LA Galaxy for Mamelodi Sundowns are slim, but what about Nwankwo Kanu? A genuine African superstar coming to the end of an illustrious career, Kanu would appreciate one last pay-day and would like the idea of being seen, once again, as the star of the show.

If Kanu’s move worked it would attract other stars, just as Beckham’s LA experiment appears to have persuade Thierry Henry that the MLS is the perfect place to wind down. In a year’s time Patrick Vieira might start thinking his time at the top level is coming to an end and consider a move down south.

South African football has a golden opportunity. Despite the success of the World Cup football here is in a pretty poor state. The national team performed well considering their limitations but qualifying for the next World Cup will be an uphill task. If South African football is going to develop then it needs more paying customers. There will never be a better chance to find them.

…finding a common reason that explains Africa’s disappointment is pointless. This was not a continental failure, rather a combination of mistakes on and off the field, difficult draws and a dose or two of bad luck, all wrapped up in a layer of unrealistic expectation.

There was a hope that since this was the first World Cup in Africa then African teams would do well. But that’s all it was: hope. In reality, none of the six teams had suggested that they were capable of surpassing Cameroon and Senegal’s achievement of reaching the quarterfinals.

From my first piece for the New York Times’ ‘Goal’ blog. The rest is here

Still, drown your sorrows and head over to Exclusive Books and pick up yours. I’ll be handing out prizes to anyone who manages to place copies of ‘Africa United’ in front of Simon Kuper’s Soccernomics on the main World Cup table, thus hiding my main competition.

• South Africans may have bought tickets in large numbers, but are they football fans? Many of those I sat with behind the goal last night were clearly going for the first time. Some were more interested in starting a Mexican Wave after five minutes than watching the football. With 10 minutes to go, and Ivory Coast back in it after Didier Drogba had pulled one back, people started leaving. “Traffic,” muttered one, as I asked why he was going

• Selling ice creams at a night match during a winter World Cup is not a good idea

• The park and ride scheme for Soccer City is working brilliantly. It took us less than an hour to get to the stadium after parking at Wits University, while on the way back the queues were orderly, moving fast and there were enough buses to take us all home. We were back at the car park within an hour and 15 minutes of the match ending. (I realise this wasn’t the case in Rustenburg, but then lots of things are worse in Rustenburg)

• Category 3 is better than Category 1. We couldn’t see much of the action at the other end but it didn’t matter. The atmosphere was great and we got a fantastic view of Luis Fabiano’s first goal (the one where he didn’t handball it twice in the build-up) and Drogba’s consolation. Those in Category 1 (price: $180) had a great birds’ eye view of the whole pitch, but were as far away from the action is one can be. I know which seats I prefer.

• Luis Fabiano is the new Thierry Henry

• The Premier League is ludicrously over priced. It cost me $80 (about £55) to watch one of the best teams in the world take on some of Africa’s most talented players at an incredible stadium in a World Cup match. It would cost more to watch Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United or Tottenham in the Premier League

• None of my teams (England, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and South Africa) have won yet.

South Africa will probably become the first host nation ever to fail to qualify for the second round. That would be sad but in the end immaterial. This particular World Cup is political. It is an affirmation of a nation’s miraculous (if incomplete) healing, of African dignity, and of a continent that deserves better than those tired images of violence and disease.

“The country is going to the dogs,” — I still hear it as I heard it long ago in different guise. What did I say about statistics? There are plenty of them.

This is still a country where only 60 percent of dwellings have flush toilets, where an estimated 6 million people are H.I.V. positive, and where unemployment runs at 25 percent. High walls — and 300,000 private security guards — testify to high murder rates.

To all of which I say: People have unrealistic expectations. They want to fast-forward life as if it were a gadget. You don’t erase the effects of a half-century of apartheid in a generation. “Non-racialism” — President Jacob Zuma’s commitment — is not the state in which South Africa lives, any more than the United States does.

Still, what I see is grandeur: a country of 49 million people, 38.7 million of them black, 4.5 million of them white, the rest mixed-race or Asian, that has held together and shunned Zimbabwean unraveling or Congolese implosion. Do not underestimate the South African achievement.

Algeria's Hassan Yebda refusing to let Rooney past (Photo: Lars Baron/Getty Images)

A bit of perspective on the England debacle in Cape Town last night. Algeria may have been useless against Slovenia in their opening match but, as I pointed out on Twitter yesterday, the Desert Foxes blow hot and cold.

At the African Nations they lost 3-0 to Malawi in the opening game but then recovered to reach the semi-finals, knocking out tournament favourites Ivory Coast along the way before self-combusting against Egypt.

Three previous encounters with Egypt in 2009 give an indication of Algeria’s strengths. Egypt are comfortably the best team in Africa, having won the last three African Nations. In last year’s Confederations Cup they beat Italy 1-0 and were unlucky to lose 4-3 to Brazil.

Algeria were drawn in the same World Cup qualifying group as Egypt with only the top team reaching South Africa. The Desert Foxes beat the Pharaohs 3-1 at home before losing 2-0 in Cairo, a result which forced a play-off on neutral territory. Algeria won that match, held in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, 1-0.

But it was the defeat in Cairo which, in many ways, was most admirable. The team bus was stoned by a group of Egyptian fans on their arrival at the airport. Several windows were smashed and three players were injured. Fifa refused to postpone the match – two of the players, Rafik Halliche and Kaled Lemmouchia, took to the field the following night with head bandages.

At least 90,000 Egyptian fans were packed into the Cairo International Stadium, most of whom had taken their seats six hours early. It was one of the most incredible atmospheres I’ve ever witnessed at a football match and must have been incredibly intimidating for the Algerians. Egypt scored an early goal but struggled to get a second which they needed to force the play-off. It eventually came in the 96th minute.

The Algerians were crestfallen – but four days later in Khartoum they would have their revenge.

The Egypt v Algeria match in Cairo features in the first chapter of Africa United…

Unlikely to be making any travel plans to the US any time soon

Ah, the internet… What’s not to love? The USA-Slovenia match ended less than half an hour ago. Koman Coulibaly, the Malian referee, didn’t have the greatest of games culminating in his decision to disallow a perfectly good winning goal for the Americans. Here’s a selection of the new entries made to Coulibaly’s Wikipedia page:

“If I had my druthers I would love to see this guy hung.”

“I don’t think it’s any coincidence his skin is the same color as evil.”

“Malicious Koman denying white man the goal”

“I think the US should house him in Guantanamo.”

“why is noone talking about how this guy is black…seems obvious to me.”

Wikipedia has wisely noted that the “neutrality of this article is disputed” and has restored its original blandness.

Few Africans from outside the host country have been able to make the trip south, while the South Africans who make their trade from football – the informal hawkers and trinket sellers – have been banned from within half a mile of the stadiums.

The official World Cup song is performed by a Colombian and to top it all the temperature has routinely dropped below freezing. The hawkers outside the exclusion zone are selling out of ear-muffs.

All of that might have been forgotten if the six African teams had performed on the pitch, but so far this is shaping up to be the worst World Cup for Africa since Cameroon’s Roger Milla-inspired breakthrough in 1990. In the first eight matches played by African teams they have managed just one win between them and scored three goals.

Cameroon, Nigeria and Algeria – England’s opponent this evening – all lost their opening matches and did little to suggest they have what it takes to reach the second round. Ivory Coast and South Africa managed creditable draws against stronger opponents, while Ghana registered the sole victory, beating Serbia 1-0.

South Africa’s 3-0 defeat to Uruguay has all but knocked the hosts out, meaning a continent’s hopes rest on the shoulders of Ivory Coast, who still have to play Brazil, and a young Ghana side that while looking lively against Serbia have yet to be tested against a top team.

No African side has gone further than the quarter-finals, a stage which Cameroon reached in 1990 and Senegal achieved in 2002. It was hoped that Africa’s first World Cup might be the stage for Africa’s first semi-finalist but, once again, it looks unlikely.

From my latest post for Channel 4 News. You can read the rest here

I had heard of Kulula, although I haven’t ever flown with them, but that’s only because I’ve taken a few domestic flights in South Africa over the past few years. They all have slightly ridiculous names (Seriously, who in their right mind takes an airline called 1time? I don’t care if it’s a South African phrase. To everyone else it suggests you wouldn’t want to use it twice.)

But Kulula, along with Bavaria, are now two of my favourite companies. Both have angered Fifa which has rather pompously accused them of “ambush marketing”.

Kulula tried to get round Fifa’s ridiciulous rules, which ban pretty much everyone from even mentioning the words “2010 World Cup” unless they are an official sponsor, by publishing an advert claiming it was the “unofficial airline of you-know-what”. Fifa wasn’t happy and went to court to ban the ad. Kulula, as David Goldblatt pointed out on his excellent World Cup blog for Prospect, have now upped their campaign, inviting Sepp Blatter to fly for free for “the duration of the thing that’s happening right now”. All he has to do is send a polite little email to iamseppblatter@kulula.com

Bavaria’s crime was to send 36 women in bright orange mini-dresses to Monday’s Netherlands v Denmark match at Soccer city. The women’s dresses didn’t have any logos but apparently Fifa’s fashion experts/marketing officials thought television viewers in the Netherlands would recognise the dresses as a Bavaria promotion. No, I don’t get it either.

Of course, neither the Kulula ads or the Bavaria stunt would have got any attention if it hadn’t been for Fifa’s bizarre over-reaction. So either there are people within Fifa who secretly hate the way they have sold the soul of football and are willing to undermine all the corporate sponsors one by one… or Fifa’s marketing department is a bit clueless.