The World Cup countdown clock that greets every arrival at Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport will state this morning that there are just 682 days until the 2010 World Cup kicks off at Soccer City in Johannesburg. But the question mark that looms over the ticking clock is whether the country will be ready on June 11 2010 when the tournament is scheduled to begin.
There is no shortage of issues surrounding South Africa's staging of football's premier competition. Crime, poor organisation, inadequate travel links, a shortage of hotels in key locations and the race to complete new stadiums have left even the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, admitting a Plan B is required should the Rainbow Nation default between now and 2010.
Such are the high politics involved in allowing Africa to stage the World Cup for the first time, however, that there is little prospect of Fifa doing to South Africa what it did to Colombia when that country was replaced by Mexico as host nation in 1986 because of internal problems.
South Africa's weaknesses, and strengths, have been evident during Manchester United's three-game tour of the country. Sir Alex Ferguson's team, who won the Vodacom Challenge with a 4-0 victory over Kaizer Chiefs in Pretoria on Saturday, were viewed as high-profile guinea pigs to test South Africa's ability to cope with the presence of footballing royalty and, from the evidence of their fixtures in Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria, much progress is yet to be made.
In Cape Town, exit doors left open at the Newlands stadium allowed supporters to enter unchecked prior to kick-off, and in Durban traffic chaos in the congested roads leading to Absa stadium prevented thousands of fans from seeing United defeat Orlando Pirates.
On Saturday further inability to handle an influx of supporters led to more traffic problems and empty seats in the ageing Loftus Versfeld stadium. Loftus, built in 1906, is a venue for 2010 but despite its 50,000-capacity it resembles a crumbling Championship venue. According to Fifa's 2010 website, "very little upgrade is needed for the stadium to be ready for the 2010 Fifa World Cup". That is a worrying observation, especially as the 70,000-seat stadiums being built in Durban and Cape Town are unlikely to be ready for their planned completion next year.
Having seen South Africa's progress at first hand over the past 10 days, Ferguson, admits that the country faces a "challenge" for 2010, but believes it will ultimately deliver a successful tournament. He said: "I believe that the country has the will and the enthusiasm to make it work. The atmosphere in Pretoria on Saturday, in particular, was fantastic and I'm sure it will be the same in 2010. I don't know what Sepp Blatter means when he talks of a Plan B for 2010 but there has certainly been an improvement in South Africa in the two years since we last visited the country.
"South Africa will be a good country for the World Cup. The organisation and security during our stay has been outstanding and the atmosphere at the stadiums during the games has been terrific. There has not been one issue for us throughout our stay. It has been first class."
Next summer South Africa will host the Confederations Cup, the tournament for continental champions. The new stadium in Port Elizabeth, a planned venue, has been taken off the list because of slow progress. The challenge is to avoid similar embarrassments 12 months later.
