Many players have likened the Jabulani to a ‘supermarket ball’, saying it is too unpredictable and flies through the air too easily. Goalkeepers have often expressed dissatisfaction about footballs at most mega events of late, but this is the first time even field players and coaches joining the chorus.

Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon went on to say “I don’t see why we can’t just go back to the old black-and-white checkered version we all played with as kids.” Statistics show scoring was down by 16 goals in the first round as compared to last World Cup’s 117-101, and scoring from set pieces has also witnessed significant dip.

According to an APP report, Pakistan has exported around 3.5mn footballs worth $5.2mn for the ongoing FIFA World Cup grabbing only 30 percent of the total orders floated globally. The penetration of machine-made footballs in the international market has caused a serious dent to Pakistan’s hand-stitched soccer ball industry.

Footballs and other sports goods are manufactured in Sialkot, a Pakistani province which boasts of building an international airport with exporters’ fortune. Though Sialkot was producing footballs since a century ago, it gained international celebrity status when it produced the “Tango” ball for the 1982 World Cup in Spain, kicking off a lucrative industry.

The footballs from Sialkot are subjected to daily tests of quality in laboratories to supervise pressure, bounce, impermeability and shape. The making of footballs include professional automatons cutting sheets of synthetic leather in hexagons or pentagons, marking, drying the paint, dividing the pieces and sewing with needles, thread and thimbles.

Only a few years ago around 70 percent of world soccer balls were prepared in Sialkot and the country on average was exporting 40mn balls worth $210mn produced annually by some 60,000 highly skilled labourers. Pakistan’s soccer ball industry is awaiting a huge favourable decision from the FIFA for them to regain its coveted football exports share in the global market.

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At WEF, Zuma again downplayed concerns over security, which was sparked off by the recent deadly attack on Togo footballers in Angola. On the other hand, he stressed the mega event offered great business opportunities for investors to showcase their merchandise.

According to the FIFA, 2mn tickets have now been sold, around two-thirds of the total that will be available. The third ticketing sales phase, which will conclude with a random draw for oversubscribed matches on 1 February, saw a total of 1,206,865 applications from 192 countries.

In the wake of the attack on Togo players at the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, many famous football personalities as well as the English and German media have been making concerted effort to brand SA as an unsafe destination. In response, Valcke on the premise of nowhere is safe in the world, argued “Where can we organize the World Cup? On the moon, where there is no one?”

Franz Beckenbauer, the former West Germany captain and coach who won the WC in both capacities, has said slow ticket sales were due to doubts over the cost and security. Likewise, the manager of Hull City, an English Premier League club, Phil Brown, has said the Angola incident put a “question mark” over the WC.

The FIFA blamed both the media and the football personalities for making potential investors and spectators to panic over the eagerly awaited global event of the year. Valcke urged the media to stop publishing articles such as, the WC is the biggest mistake by holding in SA, don’t fly to SA – it is dangerous and so on.

Zuma as a rebuttal to the criticism said that no security breach has ever happened in previous international sporting tournaments hosted by SA. He expressed confidence by saying that SA was truly ready for business and football fans from across the globe.

The SA president told that what happened in Angola would not happen in SA as the former had just emerged from a war. He informed his country was prepared for the big event with the backing of its police force, army and other security elements.

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