More than just a game of football?

Tidetalk~ journal

More than just a game of football?

In February 2009, a group of key stage 3 teachers on a Tide~ global learning study visit spent ten days exploring issues in Cape Town and their relevance to creative approaches to the new secondary curriculum in England. This article shares some of the thinking and ideas from the group around the issues raised by the 2010 World Cup being hosted by South Africa.

It introduces some of the background to the discussions of the group whilst in Cape Town. There were then further developed into a series of KS3 activities and a thinkpiece offering some thoughts about using international sporting events to talk about development with young people.

links

Jo Fairclough, Broadway School, Birmingham

Darius Jackson, University of Birmingham

Scott Sinclair, ESDGC Schools Network for Wales

Introduction by Darius Jackson, Co-leader of the 2009 Cape Town study visit

The activities and ideas shared in this article show how it is possible to study an event in one city, in this case the 2010 World Cup in Cape Town, and see how it can shed light on events elsewhere. One obvious event is the 2012 Olympics in London, though it could equally be the Climate Summit in Copenhagen, a royal visit or a meeting of Commonwealth Heads.

The most immediate influence on the group was the debate over the real legacy of the World Cup in South Africa. We interviewed Mark Gleeson, the South African football expert, in the Mugg and Bean Coffee Bar in Constantia. The next morning we discussed planning for the 2010 competition with Riefqah Jappie of the Department of the Premier Provincial Government of the Western Cape, before moving to the City Hall for a meeting about the Bay Rapid Transport System.

Very soon, issues started to emerge. This sporting event of international significance was for some, a motor for economic development, stimulating early investment and reorganising public transport, whilst for others it was likely to produce a legacy of stadia that are too big for football crowds in the area and ‘… sold on the myth …’ of supporting poorer communities.

This latter view seems to coincide with the argument put forward by Mike Davis in Planet of Slums (2006) where he is explicit that,

‘In the urban Third World, poor people dread high profile international events - conferences, dignitary visits, sporting events, beauty contests and international festivals - that prompt authorities to launch crusades to clean up the city: slum dwellers know that they are the “dirt” or “blight” that their governments prefer the world not to see…governments are…likely to improve the view by razing the slums and driving the residents out of the city.’
(Mike Davis, 2006, p104)

This leads us to the second theme of the activities: to what extent is this an accurate view of the impact the World Cup is having? Modern sporting events all promise a legacy for the local communities and the issue is, would the World Cup do so? This leads us directly to the third motive behind the activities: we wanted to develop practical teaching ideas that would be applicable to any major sporting event or “international festival”. We propose that the activities could be changed to consider, for example, the 2012 Olympics, Eurovision, or major climate change conferences.

Use the links on the right to view the KS3 activities, Thinkpiece~ an opportunity to talk about development? and Further resources

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