Mugged by 'Argentine' thugs

A few mobile phones were zapped during a Reya Vaya bus trip from Soccer City. The victims? Unsuspecting South African female fans who were probably too happy celebrating Bafana Bafana’s performance to worry about falling victim to crime on a bus in their own country. The perpetrators? Argentinean fans!

This is not some cooked up story and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when a lady related her story on Talk Radio 702 after the Bafana Bafana game. She was convinced the perpetrators where from Argentina because they wore Argentinean replica shirts and spoke Spanish. Enough to convince her these criminals were not from around the corner.

If that is the case, those thugs have a lot of nerve and should be thankful they were not exposed while the bus was in motion, for who knows what could have been the outcome.

Then there were complaints about the Mexican supporters being rowdy and aggressive at the opening match. This lot was accused of spraying everyone with Budweiser after their “disallowed” goal. The Budweiser “rain” increased even more after the equaliser for those who were neighbours to the South Americans.

A word of caution to the organisers -- serve beer in disposable plastic cups and not those brown plastic bottles. That can be a recipe for disaster should any angry fan decide to vent their frustration.

I personally had a pleasant experience with the Mochachos, dressed in green and still with their sombrero hats on despite the fact that sun had long gone down. These ones were happy to exchange some banter and pose for pictures with the locals. To an extent they agreed they were fortunate to get away with a point.

Then John Barnes insisted he was going to walk some three to five hundred metres to the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) despite some strong reservations from SuperSport floor manager Rui Marques, who felt it would not be safe for him to make that road trip. However, the Liverpool legend just brushed this aside, said “I am from Jamaica, remember”, and walked across.

The concern was not primarily around John falling prey to crime but rather being mobbed by autograph seekers and those who might want to have their pictures taken with him. Find out in his next blog on SuperSport.com how he managed that situation.

One Mamelodi Sundowns supporter was happily shamboked for blowing a vuvuzela at around 2am following his club’s win of the Nedbank Cup final. This happened in some sleepy village north of Hammanskraal in 2008. The shambok wielding perpetrator felt he could no longer take the irritating noise as he had an early bus to take to work the same morning.

Well, I am not getting into the vuvuzela debate but a word of caution to vuvu blowers, mind your neighbours while indulging in your favourite pastime.

Finally, a word of advice to the World Cup organisers also: please make sure the stewards are there not only for the start of matches but also at the end of every game. Two working shifts would not be too much to ask here given the cash they will rake in from the ticket sales.