World Cup Opens in South Africa; Traffic Delays Mar Final Countdown

(WFI) The South Africa World Cup - the first FIFA finals on African soil - kicks off with a spectacular opening ceremony at Johannesburg’s iconic 85,500-capacity Soccer City stadium.

The 40-minute ceremony, watched by millions of viewers in 215 countries, featured a cast of 1,581 world-class artists, dancers, musicians and performers. American R'n'B star R Kelly was among them.

The 40-minute opening ceremony included a five-plane military flypass over the stadium, one of 10 venues in nine cities spread across the country that are hosting the June 11 to July 11 tournament.

But traffic congestion around the stadium meant many fans were unable to get to the venue on time for the extravaganza.

South Africa president Jacob Zuma and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who sported the yellow and green colours of the country's national side, were among the dignatories at the ceremony.

Former South Africa president Nelson Mandela was unable to attend because of his great-granddaughter's death in a car crash.

In a statement, FIFA president Sepp Blatter described the accident as "unspeakably tragic news".

He said Mandela would be "with us in spirit". Mandela, 91, is regarded as the chief architect of South Africa's successful World Cup bid, which was awarded to the Rainbow Nation in 2004.

South Africa play Mexico in the opening match of the 19th edition of the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off at 4pm.

Soccer City transformed

Six months ago the area around Soccer City was little more than a dustbowl attended by a small army of construction workers and a forlorn-looking shanty town in its car park.

Today, the great Calabash-shaped stadium launched the World Cup. It is surrounded and filled by a sea of green and yellow Bafana Bafana shirts, accompanied by the omnipresent buzz of the vuvuzela, a plastic trumpet that will make for a noisy World Cup.

Everywhere you go, and whichever radio or TV station you tune in to, the news is all about the World Cup.

The refrain of its organizers all week is that South Africa is ready – Africa is ready. Whether that is really the case is a moot point, but certainly Africa expects.

There is a wonderful naivety among many South African fans that the World Cup is here to stay, that the country will win the World Cup.

That seems unlikely, but there is a definite sense that whatever happens on the pitch, off it South Africa will be a winner.

Despite the multitude of grumblings, to the billion plus tuning in worldwide to this finals, the prestige and position of South Africa – and indeed the whole continent – intheir reckoning will be largely transformed by the tournament.

Delays and disorganization mar final countdown

Those heeding the advice of organizers to arrive up to four hours before the opening ceremony were greeted by eerily empty streets around Soccer City.

A 2km exclusion zone for those without tickets was strictly enforced, but the continued confusion over parking continued inside the "football zone".

The advice that you could turn up on the day and park in one of the masses of car parks was soon confounded.

A bad-tempered LOC official yelled to INSIDER that that was an "assumption" of "arrogant" foreign journalists – rather than the bad advice of his colleagues. Only "unofficial" payment secured entry into one of the fan car parks – which many fans will not have known they needed to pre-book.

Those bussed in from Sandton and downtown Johannesburg endured nightmare journeys, the absence of proper bus lanes on the highway meaning they were stuck up to three hours in traffic.

Around the stadium, an hour before the opening ceremony started, many concourses were strangely quiet.

It transpired that nearly all fans were being shepherded across a narrow pedestrian bridge to a handful of turnstiles. Quite how effective – or safe – that tactic will be when the stadium empties remains to be seen, but even at that time there were long queues.

When the opening ceremony started shortly after 2pm local time, it was still only around 60 per cent full, but the echo of vuvuzelas was utterly deafening. In 25 years of watching live football, seldom have I entered such a wall of noise – and when the South African airforce flew past it threatened to burst my eardrums.

The opening ceremony was the usual show of song and dance – flag waving dancers positioning themselves into a map of the world – first with Africa at its centre, then with flags of all the competing nations.

While it was spectacular, there was a yawning absence at its heart – Nelson Mandela, grieving for his great granddaughter, who was killed in a car crash on her way home from the opening concert last night – that meant that no matter how great a show it was, it all rang a little hollow.

An hour later, South Africa captain Aaron Mokoena led the Bafana Bafana onto the pitch to an unbelievable din of cheers and hoots. Suddenly the preamble was over. The greatest show on earth was finally under way.

For continuing on the scene coverage of the World Cup, be sure to visit World Football Insider.

With reporting from James Corbett and Mark Bisson in Johannesbug.