We can be proud of this country – collectively. The government deserves special praise. They truly came to the party; they poured in lots of resources – human and capital. I still marvel at the organisational expertise of the Local Organising Committee: every night, for a whole month, matches were played around the country without a glitch.

I’m glad I witnessed all this. But for me, when the World Cup came around my main priority was to give my three grandchildren a taste of the tournament. I wanted to sit with them in the stands, to get them to feel the vibe and be proud that their country was hosting the World Cup. So, I bought tickets for the opening ceremony at Soccer City and for the South Africa-Uruguay clash at Loftus in Pretoria and went with them. Subsequently, I was lucky to be invited to other matches. In total, I watched six World Cup games.

My grandchildren certainly enjoyed themselves even when not at the stadium. They watched every match on television. They knew the names of every player. Other than Bafana Bafana, from day one, they favoured Spain to win. Their friends came over to my house and literally camped. There were different flags and posters everywhere. It was unbelievable. My house resembled a Spanish villa. I’m sure the young fellas would have liked me to change my nationality, too.

I know that in the months and weeks before World Cup came doomsayers raised doubts about our country’s capability to host the event. I never bought into any of that nonsense. A few years ago, sceptics doubted if Greece could host the Olympics, and yet the games happened with splendid success. You must remember that FIFA, the soccer world’s governing body, had contractual obligations in place with various sponsors and broadcasters worth billions. There was no way that FIFA was going to let the tournament on our shores fail. As is tradition, before every World Cup, FIFA sends in hundreds and hundreds of its people to monitor the situation on the ground and ensure that things go off smoothly. So, I was always confident that the tournament would go off well.

It’s funny how most of us soccer lovers altered the routines of our daily lives to enjoy this month-long entertainment. Must say, I’m a little depressed this week. With the tournament having ended last Sunday, there’s no soccer to watch on television.

But, with the euphoria dying down, and normal life resuming, we need to make sure that as a country we reap the rewards from this success of the Cup. I see tourism benefiting immensely. In 1992, Barcelona hosted the Olympics. Ten years later their tourism was still thriving because of the games. A similar scenario could happen in South Africa. We have opened the door; now we must follow through. The fears of security have diminished considerably. We must bring in tourists in larger numbers.

Another spin-off from the World Cup is that soccer stands a chance to spread to the white community that has not yet embraced the sport. This can happen through schools. For too long previously white schools would allow pupils to play all sports, including soccer, at a primary level, but when they reach high school rugby and cricket become the only available sports. This must change. Youngsters at high school must be allowed to play soccer if they so desire. That’s the morality of it. Who knows, in future, we could have a racially mixed Bafana Bafana, with a new generation of Neil Toveys.

I say all this because I’m passionate about sports development and the positive role of sports in society. I draw my lessons from the sport I’ve loved all my life – cricket. I remember that after the unification of South African cricket in 1991, there was a push to get the sport to underprivileged areas in a meaningful way. Schools proved to be a wonderful vehicle. A similar plan could be pursued with soccer. We have twenty-seven thousand schools in this country. Most of these schools have women teachers – most of them black – who can be trained to, in turn, coach learners. Training teachers worked well when cricket authorities used schools to spread the sport. We had a national academy. Courses, seminars and coaching clinics were arranged. It was fantastic.

On another level, it makes business sense to spread any sport.

Lastly, another benefit of taking sports to schools is that it could boost excellence. It’s always best to start when kids are young. Age-based leagues, as happens in cricket, could be created. You can then have national under-elevens, under-twelve, under-fifteen and under-seventeen and under-nineteens tournaments. Cricket did this so well in the 1980s. We had national youth weeks and they were effective. When Jacques Kallis was fifteen, I got a call from Cape Town and was told that there was a star around the corner and the prediction was correct. The same thing happened with Graeme Pollock and Makhaya Ntini. That’s the benefit of having organised sport even at junior level: you unearth natural talent early and then you nurture it. There will be no crisis, then, when top players get injured, lose form or retire. It’s a practical system that soccer administrators may wish to look at and, of course, adapt it according to their needs. I read somewhere, recently, that in Brazil they have vibrant national age-group tournaments that enable them to find young soccer talent. Perhaps another example to emulate.

On a personal level, watching so many World Cup matches brought back fond memories of my time as a soccer player while at Yeoville Boys Primary School in the early 1950s. We had a great team and I was a centre forward. I was good. In four years, my team was beaten only once. We were popular, too. Shops on Raleigh Street in Yeoville would close down as shopkeepers came to support us. I wonder how life would have turned out if I had found soccer, instead of rugby, when I moved to King Edward High School.

As told to Phakama Mbonambi