Soccer

I was born in Mexico and grew up playing and watching soccer or football as it known around the world. After all, this football is played with your feet! This summer was a great summer for me, thanks to the 

World Cup in South Africa, the biggest sporting event in the world. I was happy that the continent of Africa was hosting their first world cup. For a whole month the channels broadcasting the event were running side stories about positive and not so positive impact of the event on South Africa. Many of the positive stories were about how the event was was to bring unity to the country and the possible financial gains. On the other hand, the not so positive stories were about the cost of hosting the event. South Africa spent 5 billion US dollars on the infrastructure and the building of new stadiums for the event. Another negative story was the displacement of some of poor South African citizens to build the stadiums. Today ESPN broadcasted the game between the USA and South Africa in South Africa. ESPN ran a story about the aftermath of the world cup and whether spending 5 billion to host the event was worth it. Many of the new stadiums now sit empty and are not generating any revenue. The citizens who were promised basic needs like running water after the event were still with out running water and are living in shanty town shacks, just as they were prior to the World Cup coming to Africa. It appears so far that hosting the biggest sports event in the world did not help South Africa's development.