The 2014 Fifa Club World Cup currently on in Morocco has received very little to zero coverage in most of Africa, including South Africa.
I don't know about other places on the continent, but as far as South Africa is concerned the media boycott has nothing to do with Morocco's late withdrawal as hosts of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nation. Knowing the attitude of my country's media and the football public at large, this world show on home continent was destined to be a non-starter as was the case last years and the years before. One would have thought that since we were competing with Morocco for the 2013 and 2014 hosting rights, South Africa would take interest to see how we could have done things better, compared with what's transpiring in Morocco right now.
By the look of things, all is going well in Morocco and the games are well supported. The first semifinal on Tuesday, when Real Madrid beat Cruz Azul of Mexico 4-0 in Marrakech, 34,862 fans thronged the stadium. This albeit last-minute change of venue from waterlogged Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat. Other matches have attracted crowds no less than 22 000 in both host cities.
With this in mind, I think it's a blessing that South Africa lost the bid to the north African state. There was no way the games here would have attracted crowds bigger than 20 000. The reason is that SA is still lagging behind about trends in the international arena; it's even worse when such events are held in Africa. Some blame apartheid but the truth is that the people here just don't care much about developments on home continent.
I know I could be generalising but the truth is that information about what's happening in Africa is easily available now, thanks to internet on mobile phones. On average, South Africans are more concerned about what's happening in America, which explains why artists from the US are coining it here while best African music exports remain largely unknown in the land of Mandela.
Secondly, SA media's coverage of Africa is also not helping as it ignores major, positive developments and highlight disasters. Should anything go wrong during the Fifa tournament in Morocco, like a stand collapsing and injuring fans, it will be news until the end of the week. But conversely very, very few people in SA are aware that Real Madrid are in action in Morocco this week, and that they are the defending champions of the world crown they won in the same African country in 2013.
Maybe what the tournament needed was a group of crazed locals threatening the Real Madrid bus with violence, then South Africans, even sworn football lovers, would have known that one of the world's top football clubs is in Africa right now.
Furthermore, it's indictment on SA's ambition to be top in African football when the fans here had not even heard of the Fifa Club World Cup. A vast majority of SA fans still do not know that the biggest reward for playing and winning the African Champions League is the ticket to the Fifa Club World Cup. This also explains why in SA the CAF Champions League is held with disdain, when in reality should be the crowning glory for excellence in club football in Africa.
For the record, the final match of the Fifa tournament will take place on Saturday in Marrakech, with Madrid meeting San Lorenzo of Argentina.
