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News

Soccer enthused South Africa

The large majority of seventeen in every twenty (85%) respondents in a snap survey¹ indicated that they have more hope than before for a happy future for all South Africans after the Soccer World Cup tournament. In a few recent studies², a similar, but more general question about a happy future for all South Africans evoked positive responses from between 60% and 65% of all adult South Africans.

The FIFA Soccer World Cup thus had a profound effect on South Africans and our view of the future and, perhaps more importantly, on our view of ourselves. Various participants in the survey expressed this sentiment:

• “It is just the greatest thing that happened to South Africa”
• “It was a success and it brought a lot of unity to people in the country”
• “I just think it has been an amazing experience, the whole of South Africa supporting the World Cup and I think it united the country”
• “It was more than expected, beyond my wildest dreams”
• “I think it was excellent, it changed my view of soccer because I was not a soccer fan”
• “It was one month of happiness in South Africa for hosting the World Cup”

After the World Cup, 98% have indicated that they are proud to be South African – which is also a very high score. Moreover, respondents agreed with the FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, and gave the country an overall score of 9 out of 10 when asked: “Thinking about all aspects of the World Cup tournament, how many points out of ten would you give South Africa for hosting the tournament, where 10 out of 10 means that it was perfect and one of the best Soccer World Cups ever and 0 out of 10 that it was terrible and not up to scratch.” One in every ten (11%) said that the World Cup made no difference to their feelings about the future, whereas 4% said that they now have less hope for a happy future. This small pessimistic group included more males than females, but included people from all race and age groups.

As we have seen throughout the tournament, South Africans really supported the teams and the occasion and 26% of the sample indicated that they had attended a game at a stadium; a third (34%) said that they had been to a fan fest and almost everybody (98%) said that they watched a game on television. It is interesting that more males than females attended matches at stadiums and fan fests, but when it comes to watching television, there was no difference between the genders. As expected, a larger proportion of those in higher income groups attended a match: 43% of those earning between R10,000 and R15,999 a month and 49% of those earning more than R16,000 a month. (In previous press releases we have mentioned that the price of the tickets was a deterrent to a large number of South Africans.)

The vuvuzela was one of the main features of this World Cup, getting both positive and negative comments in the worldwide media. Almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents indicated that they owned a vuvuzela.

Feelings about various other aspects were also probed and respondents were asked: “For each of the following, please give a point out of 10, where 10 means that you were completely satisfied or impressed with the aspect and 0 means that you think it was not quite up to standard.”

In the survey, the sentiment was very strongly expressed that South Africa should use the success of the FIFA Soccer World Cup to tackle other important issues:

• “It was very successful and it should bring more things for the country in the future, i.e. more tourists, better job creation and great exposure to the rest of the world”
• “It raises a concern about the future of South Africans, especially the poor people. What is going to happen now that the World Cup is finished?”
• “I enjoyed the atmosphere, the sense of security was great, being able to walk around with freedom. Will this continue?”
• “It was amazing, but now hopefully there will be better job opportunities for everyone”
• “I just hope they continue with the good work, like the security, transport, etc.”
• “I hope the friendliness and the togetherness of the people will continue even after the World Cup”.
Perhaps the respondent who commented: “It was the great open-up for the rest of the world” said it best.

¹- On Monday 12 July and Tuesday 13 July 400 telephonic interviews were done with a representative sample of South Africans living in metropolitan areas, with a telephone in-home. In order to obtain a representative sample quotas were set for gender, race, age and area.
² – Ipsos Markinor’s six-monthly Socio-Political Trends survey of 3 500 South Africans.

For more information contact:

Mari Harris
Director & Political Analyst:
Business Development and Public Affairs
Tel: 011 686 8458 / 082 380 3010
mari.harris@ipsos.com