Donal Lenihan, Johannesburg

BEST Confederations Cup ever. So read the headline in this morning’s The Star newspaper in Johannesburg. With next year’s soccer World Cup less than a year away FIFA have given the hosts an eight out of ten for the organisation, facilities and accommodation.

All very well and difficult to argue with. Certainly the new stadia that I saw in Durban and Cape Town are highly impressive structures even if they have a bit to go to be completed on time. To ensure that happens, the organisers are incentivising the work force offering them 10 tickets per game which in time will be worth a lot of money on the corporate scene. No wonder they are beavering away seven days a week.

So as far as FIFA is concerned everything is in place. However the experience of the thousands of Lions supporters who have made such a positive impression on this country may differ in one very important issue. Everywhere we have travelled, from Durban to Cape Town, from Pretoria to Johannesburg, the advice from the hotel staff is always the same  - don’t walk anywhere even if you are told your destination is only a few minutes’ down the road. Our journey to the test match last Saturday took the biscuit. Loftus Versfeld was fifteen minutes from our hotel by foot. Yet even at 1pm in the afternoon it was deemed unsafe to walk and all in our party had to board a bus to negotiate the short journey.

When a few people, on spotting an ATM machine asked about stopping in order to access some money, they were politely told under no circumstances. In this country you do what you are told. Quite how this will go down with England’s barmy army when they descend on this country next summer will be interesting.

The Republic of Ireland, of course, are still on course to qualify and should they do so will also travel in big numbers. It is a fantastic country in so many ways and has so much to offer yet it is still negotiating the massive changes that have taken place over the last fifteen years.

What is noticeable despite the obvious progress that has been made is that in certain parts of the country old habits die hard. In Durban for example the new amalgamated national anthem was sung with gusto from start to finish while in Pretoria, a noted Afrikaner region, ‘Die Stem’ the country’s original anthem which praises God and celebrates the triumphs of the Boers was sang several decibels higher that the opening segment ‘Nkosi Sikelele’ which the black leaders always saw as the true anthem and sang at the start of all their political rallies during the fight for the abolition of the apartheid regime.