The Ball 2010

Hats and Ball

The Ball and the former 1st Lady

Stamped and Signed The Ball can enter Botswana

Zebras waiting for The Ball to arrive

DHL Botswana in da Haus

Theo Walcott sports 3 Lions Shirt with pride despite World Cup cold shoulder

England prepare for World Cup with barefoot match in Botswana

Bruce Heyns of DHL receives The Ball at the border

Keep out! Everywhere walls in Africa look like this

Namibian beauties: two DJs get their hands on The Ball

Need head? The Ball gives it

Balls from outer space, meteorites in Windhoek

Battle of the sexes: whose ball is it anyway?

Corner pockets for goalposts? Right on cue

Border guards give a show of hands for The Ball

Dov Weintraub, diamond cutter extraordinaire, simply has to sign The Ball and have his picture taken with it. He’s completely mad about football. He’s got tickets to the Opening Ceremony of the World Cup.

Dov Weintraub watches as his son signs The Ball

Here in Windhoek, Dov runs Almod Diamonds of Namibia and invites us over to look at a special diamond that they’ve been cutting. “Have you ever seen a diamond that looks like a football?” he asks us. “No, but we’d like to,” Christian replies.

Two balls, one pricy, one priceless

Dov shows us a diamond weighing six carats that he reckons looks like a football. We pass him a football that we reckon is a peerless gem.

The Ball looks flawless even under scrutiny

Every diamond has a value attached to it — and usually an eye-wateringly high one. We’ve been offered money for The Ball countless times en route. But even if we were offered an obscene amount of money for it we’d have to refuse. The Ball is not for sale. It is priceless.

We arrive at the school with The Ball and a giant replica. Alarmingly for us, the teachers are nowhere to be seen. Andrew talks to the kids about The Ball, but struggles to make himself heard above the cacophony of chatter.

Mayhem and cacophony greets The Ball

The children crowd around to sign both balls. And game on… The Ball is kicked around the school-yard in an unruly fashion harking back to the days of village football in England or even the Wall Game at Eton. A huge punt by one young lad and The Ball’s on a classroom roof.

Where’s The Ball? Mob football in Windhoek

But what’s that? Oh no. The Ball meets a spike on the roof head-on and flops back to earth limp, lifeless and deflated. It needs urgent repairing. We’re a long way from an Alive & Kicking stitching centre and even further from The Ball doctor in Douala. What to do?

We’re recommended a cobbler and that seems like the sensible solution until we hear about a technique for fixing bike punctures. The answer is simple — pump a white sticky substance into The Ball with a syringe.

Injecting the white sticky stuff

Shake The Ball about, pump it up, bounce it around. And hey, presto, it rolls again…

The sticky stuff finds the hole and seals it

The Ball was dead. Long live The Ball.

We bump into New Zealand’s best ever footballer — 1982 World Cup legend Winton Rufer and ask him about the Spirit of Football. His response:

Winton Rufer, Frankie Fredericks and The Ball

“Well, we saw a little bit of it today in Windhoek, Namibia with the game Global United against African Allstars. It’s a celebration of the world’s game. The people turn out. Lots of colour. Lots of action. Having a really good time. Lots of goals as well. It can’t be better.”

Andrew legitimately meets Winton after the game

“How will New Zealand do at the World Cup?” asks fellow Kiwi Andrew.

“New Zealand will get through, and lose the semi-final to Brazil”, replies the now grey-haired and still thick-accented Winton, with a grin.

Wouldn’t that be fab, thinks Andrew as Winton generously provides him with ten autograph cards.

“Here we have my personal signed signature cards for my Kiwi mate Andrew. So that when he goes to South Africa, he can give a few more away to show that we were legitimately together in Windhoek, Namibia.”

Overcome by Winton’s foresight and generosity, Andrew is left speechless.

We stop by Independence Stadum in Windhoek for a game of football with a difference. Winton Rufer, from as far away as New Zealand, has travelled over 24 hours to arrive in time for kick-off. Other former stars, like 2002 World Cup Finalist Jens Novotny, have jetted in from Germany. Former Danish National Team player and regular at Bolton Wanderers, Stig Tofting, arrives from England. African legends have come in, thanks to Air Namibia, from all over Africa. Global FC have jetted in from all over the world to raise awareness for the very important global issue: climate change.

Global FC line up in the Independence Stadium

After the match, we have a chance to talk to German legend Mario Basler about the Spirit of Football.

Mario Basler on The Ball

“Football is a team game. Everybody can take part in this game. If you are rich if you are poor. It doesn’t matter, you can play football. On the beach. On the streets… everywhere. That is why football is sport number one in the world.”

“Yesterday, we went to a township with one ball. I asked the kids if they would like to play football with us. And there was no question for them to say yes and to play football with us. This is the spirit of football.”

“Almost everything here is a blog post,” Christian says. He’s not wrong. On the road, out of one’s standard environment, almost everything looks interesting and worthy of comment.

But we must, of course, select the moments we post about. We choose the moments that we think are relevant. It’s a hard task because crazy stuff happens all around us on this continent, everywhere and all the time. And so, this post is the first in a series where we’ll post pictures we think you’ll like from moments that don’t quite fit into other stories…

Elijah from DHL welcomes The Ball into Zambia

Football with one boot en route to Lusaka

Kaka prepares for World Cup with street football in remote Zambian village

School girls line up to kick The Ball in Lusaka

Mass signing of The Ball at Lusaka school

Hand made balls… on the road to Livingstone

European Voodoo Consultant

“When I have problems at work. When my boss gets on my case. When I need peace. I go outside and I listen to the falls. It totally relaxes me. I love it.”
– anonymous Zambian Mosi crew member

Rainy season was very rainy this year. Zambia suffered from flooding. Crops were ruined. People were displaced from their homes. When the rains are hard, the falls become torrential.

Victoria Falls in full flow

When you visit Victoria Falls in May, like we are doing, you don’t get to see much else other than huge amounts of water cannoning down 110 metres and a cloud of upside-down rain bouncing back up — half a mile high in the air. This cloud can be seen from Livingstone, 12 kilometres away.

The cloud of upside down rain

The falls are thunderous, magnificent, powerful — and we need to protect The Ball. One false kick, flick, or back-heel trick would be the end of The Ball 2010. Andrew is very nervous as we get ready to do a “head-on”. You see, we film The Ball being kicked or headed on in a variety of situations and settings all the way to each and every World Cup. Victoria Falls is a backdrop that we want to film.

Elijah throws The Ball from out of screen and Christian is waiting in shot. The throw is on the money — well, Christian’s forehead to be exact. What a header! Christian directs The Ball out of frame and away, thankfully, from the falls. Andrew, soaking wet, is very relieved to collect The Ball… The Ball is safe.

A relieved and soaked Andrew kisses The Ball

“No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes, but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight”
– David Livingstone, 1857

President Rupiah Banda signs The Ball at State House in Lusaka

“We are very happy that young people thought of this idea of taking The Ball around Africa. It makes us all feel part of the game. Today was the worst day you could have come to State House. We have cancelled all of the things before and after your visit. All of my ministers are here with many things to do. But we thought that it was so important, that we must attend to this.”
– Rupiah Banda, President of Zambia

Blantyre welcomes The Ball in style with a parade to the stadium from the polytechnic, DJs blaring funky music from a truck, Special Olympians leading the way with friends, family and supporters in tow.

Marching from the polytechnic to the stadium

Be a fun of The Ball

The national stadium is the venue for the latest installment of the publicity drive that the national Special Olympics programmes are undertaking with The Ball as their catalyst and their story.

The Minister of Sport checks his notes while Andrew speaks

The Minister of Sport is the guest of honour, attending despite a very tight schedule on this national holiday in Malawi. Although not as forthright in his support as we would all like him to be, it sounds like he’s urging Special Olympics Malawi to redouble their efforts in producing results at international competitions before offering his full support. Still, conditional support is better than none, and SO Malawi take up the challenge and promise results.

Speeches over, it’s time for some football. A Unified football game precedes the main attraction of the day — a match between two of Malawi’s top teams: Escom and MTN Wanderers.

A Unified Football team prepares for the match

Barefoot kickoff in the Unified game

While the Unified game is underway, Andrew gets down to the, ahem, serious business of getting signatures on The Ball. He’s determined that all the Special Olympians present should leave their mark on it and so he heads for he stands where they are all gathered. An hour later and he’s completed his mission.

Special Olympians Mikakh Chikanga and Balire Kudzala sign The Ball

The professionals take to the field to much applause and cheering from the stands. It seems like their supporters have turned out is force, despite the game being a friendly.

First half expectancy in the crowd

The enthusiasm starts to fade in the second half, however, as it looks like the professional teams, minds probably on upcoming cup fixtures, are happy to grind out a 0-0 draw.

Second half lethargy in the crowd

Many positives can be taken from this event. The organisation has been impeccable, SO Malawi are up for the Minister’s challenge (and will no doubt rise to it), there has been a great turnout from the public, and the SO athletes have had a wonderful time in the limelight. Which, in the end, is as it should be.