World cup official merchandise.

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Nicky_G

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I was tuning my radio when I came across a talk show stating that rights to produce Zakumi memorabilia and shirts have been given to a chinese company. Now I have always been pro-SA when it came to the world cup but this is discusting. We have an ailing textile industry in need of a boost with thousands of unemployed people who could effectively find employment had these contracts been given to the local industry. One caller even stated that the Jabulani balls and shirts have tags stating that these products are made in china. Can anyone confirm if this is infact true.
 
The Jabulani balls are made by Adidas. The specific factory in which they are made could be anywhere. And it could be in China.

I've pointed out, on numerous times, that the WC does not provide any direct economic benefit to the ordinary citizens - stand back - there will be a flood of statements about roads and soccer stadia.

FIFA are not about creating opportunities for anyone other than themselves.
 
Just go to Bruma Flea Market, you can buy any world cup merchandise there that you want with no FIFA tags on. :D
 
Hahaha!
Go to Bruma and skip FIFA entirely, send money directly to China!

On a more realistic note:
Merchandising is a mega cost when it comes to events like this.
We're probably talking MILLIONs of $US difference between manufacturing locally and cheaper imports from China.

At the end of the day, we all look after our own bottom line.

Dealing with our "enthusiastic" labour laws and "empowering" ownership guidelines, I wouldn't blame anyone for sourcing merchandise from China.
There's a difference between bolstering the local economy and charity.
 
Thick as Thieves

Nicky_G said:
One caller even stated that the Jabulani balls and shirts have tags stating that these products are made in china.
Can anyone confirm if this is infact true.
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Ask this guy Andrew Jennings

He has a bit of a thing for Sepp Blater and FIFA :erm::)

Scratch around on that site a bit if you want some insight -- we poor uninformed sods in SA do not know the half of it.

SA media have been give VERY strict instructions NOT to rock the boat -- to point out all this dirty washing is to be considered -- UNPATRIOTIC.

I have always maintained that the FIFA WCF 2010 will turn out to be a bigger scandal than that ARMS thing.:sick:


MW
 
it is also the locals who have gone dilly

I cannot fathom how anyone could have expected the FIFA-sanctioned Great South African rip-off to have resulted in such capitalist excess, which neatly coincides with a football tournament. Tourism companies are licking their greedy lips, ready to fleece foreigners of every pound, dollar and peso they can get their gluttonous fingers on.

It starts with getting around: naturally, because of the size of our country, air travel will be key in ferrying football fans. However, a search I did recently for return fares from Johannesburg to Cape Town on all SA domestic airlines (23-30 June) revealed that the cheapest possible price was R4038 with Kulula.com. The cheapest SAA flight was R7260, usually an amount of money that can carry you a lot further - it is virtually what you are charged to fly direct between Johannesburg and London.

As if it couldn't get worse, there are accusations of collusion now flying between the Competition Commission and our domestic airlines. In simple language: price-fixing. At the time of writing, 1Time, Mango and Comair (which includes British Airways and Kulula) have already denied any collusion, but SAA have upturned the apple-cart with an application for leniency from the Commission as a reward for passing over emails it maintains could act as evidence. It doesn't look great.

And, as a cherry on top, Airports Company South Africa has asked for a 100% increase in airport charges over two years, which, luckily, was rejected yesterday. It would have, in some instances, resulted in driving the tax up to over 50% of your ticket.

Accommodation will be no better. I know of a lodge which usually charges R130 per night for a bed in a dormitory. For June and July, this will be knocked up to as much as R300 per night. Never has the hotel industry been this prepared to score so much, including the legal distributor of WC2010 accommodation, a FIFA-appointed company called Match which will be charging providers an alleged 30% commission on all bed-nights sold - driving prices up even further. And as these hoteliers sing and dance around their well-maintained lobbies celebrating their exorbitant fortunes-to-be, they are doing our country a massive disservice.

Our failure here is that this money-grabbing overload has absolutely no long-term benefit for South Africa. People who are ripped off will not come back. It is that simple. They will tell their friends not to come here. They will write reviews of how they were charged R2100 to spend a week in one of 14 beds in a dorm, after parting with something mortgage-like to fund their plane ticket.

Two reasons that SA is regarded as a top tourist destination: our transport infrastructure is good (in terms of air travel) and we're cheap. Well, due to our upcoming obsession with thrashing every tourist's credit card to within an inch of its life, no one will be able to afford the flights (do you really want our visitors driven around by Roadlink?), the places to stay, and I don't even want to think about how much the private taxi industry is going try and gorge itself out of the deal.

SA Tourism needs to get involved if we are to stave off a new reputation of being nothing other than money-grabbing sharks. We are known for our hospitality, and this will do us no favours in entrenching the South Africa brand. No-one is denying the tourism industry the right to profit, but to let such excess run wild will present us with nothing sustainable from the biggest advertising campaign we will ever undergo.

This is our opportunity to show what we're all about. If we want to present an image of thieves and profiteers, then we should continue as we are unabated, and screw every cent out of whoever we can get our greedy claws into.
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http://www.gotravel24.com/theme/world-cup-2010/great-south-africa-rip

viva DSTV viva PVR :)
 
Albereth said:
The Jabulani balls are made by Adidas. The specific factory in which they are made could be anywhere. And it could be in China.

I've pointed out, on numerous times, that the WC does not provide any direct economic benefit to the ordinary citizens - stand back - there will be a flood of statements about roads and soccer stadia.

FIFA are not about creating opportunities for anyone other than themselves.
Click to expand...

Enough with the negative waves man

Wouldn't want the Yay S.A gestapo on your case ;)
 
The World Cup is an "opportunity". If South Africans dont grab the opportunity then someone else will. Such as UK companies selling knife-protection gear and chinese companies selling shirts. Its already Feb 2010. If South African companies still havent made their move they only have themselves to blame. However, South Africans do have the monopoly on complaining about the world cup :D
 
The guy who manufactures vuvuzelas is probably making quite a bit of tom.
 
theratman said:
EVERYONE makes vuvuzelas these days,the guy shoulda put a patent on it.
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Don't think you can really patent it, it would be like trying to patent a trumpet. I recall watching a show on Supersport about a plastics company (in CT i think) that mass produced them for all the sporting clubs/stadiums etc.
 
Vuvuzela Horn’s Creator Misses Jackpot

theratman said:
EVERYONE makes vuvuzelas these days,the guy shoulda put a patent on it.
Click to expand...

Fudzy said:
The guy who manufactures vuvuzelas is probably making quite a bit of tom.
Click to expand...

http://soccerworldcup-2010.net/vuvuzela-horns-creator-misses-jackpot/

It used to be visible only at *football matches, but the metre-long horn known as the vuvuzela has grown in popularity beyond South Africa, thanks to the World Cup finals set to kick off here in June. But just who is cashing in on the South African-turned-global phenomenon?

Popular Kaizer Chiefs supporter Freddie “Saddam” Maake, who claims to have created the instrument, is an angry man and feels sidelined from the lucrative spin-offs of his “hard work”. The Mail & Guardian caught up with the colourful 53-year-old football fan at his home in Tembisa this week. He vows the rights of the vuvuzela belong to him and went on to put up a convincing argument for why he should receive royalties from all the companies that produce the horn.

Finding Maake’s house is not difficult, even in the crowded suburb of Tembisa. It is the one with a giant Kaizer Chiefs flag at the gate. Resplendent in the gold and black colours of his beloved club, Saddam welcomed the M&G team into his home. The lounge resembles a football museum, dominated by Amakhosi artefacts, which include more than 200 helmets, known as amakaraba, all types of vuvuzelas, flags, scarves, posters and pictures. Even his giant flat-screen television beamed the 1988 Bob Save final between Orlando Pirates and Chiefs.

There was no time to admire his fine collection as he quickly pulled out a folder that explains his long relationship with the controversial instrument. “They may steal my idea [the vuvuzela], but Saddam Maake is a football brand,” he says as he lays out dozens of photographs on a coffee table covered with a Kaizer Chiefs tablecloth.

He points at the first picture taken in the 1970s, of him holding a long aluminium vuvuzela. “This is the father of all the vuvuzelas you see today.” Maake says the instrument was banned from the stadium as authorities ruled that it was a dangerous weapon. He admits to having used it once or twice in scuffles with rival fans and feels the ban was justified.

The common denominator in all the pictures on the table that trace his journey from Kaiser Chiefs matches in the 1970s and 1980s to South Africa’s readmission to international football with the *
4-1 loss to Zimbabwe in 1992, as well as to the 1996 (South Africa) and 1998 (Burkina Faso) Africa Cup of Nations, is that he is the only supporter holding a vuvuzela.

He moves to his most prized *photograph, taken at the 1998 World Cup finals in France after he was funded by Coca-Cola to travel with Bafana Bafana as they made their debut appearance at the global extravaganza. “As you can see, the French were amused by my invention and surrounded me everywhere I went.”

There are many other pictures, including one of him teaching Orlando Pirates’ number-one supporter, Mzion Mo***eng, how to blow the horn. All tell of a man with a long history with the instrument.

“This is my invention and it saddens me that other people are benefiting from all the suffering I have endured in popularising the vuvuzela. I was locked up for 20 minutes at the airport when I insisted on flying to Zimbabwe with my vuvuzela in 1992. I was determined to blow it as I boarded the plane, because it was the first time I flew.”

He says the pictures may only show him with a vuvuzela as late as the 1970s, but Maake claims to have made his first horn in 1965. “I started with an old bicycle horn that used to have a black rubber. I removed the rubber and blew it with my mouth.” He pulls the old horn out of his bag to collaborate his story.

Maake says he tried hard to find a manufacturer for the perfect vuvuzela. In 1989, after his aluminium piece was banned, he met Peter Rice, who owned a plastic-manufacturing company. “Peter helped me a lot because he agreed to make a plastic version, but it was still too short for my liking.” He joined a pipe to make it longer. In 1999 he chose to market “his invention” with a 10-track album named Vuvuzela Cellular, which features the horn prominently in most of the songs.

Maake’s anger about his loss in earnings is directed at Neil van Schalkwyk, the co-owner of Masincedane Sport in Cape Town. He accuses the 36-year-old businessman of “short changing” him after an earlier undertaking to share the proceeds. “He is making a killing out of my hard work while I starve,” says Maake. Masincedane has gone into partnership with a German company to produce the vuvuzela ahead of the 2010 World Cup. “Journalists from as far as England and Mexico have visited me here and say that I should be rich, but look at me.”

The father of nine still lives in a rented house in Tembisa and survives mostly by selling his 1999 CD at football matches.

“The most I have received from Neil is R2 500 back in 2004 and he tells me that there is no money whenever I contact him.”

Maake says, as a poor man, the government and legal system have let him down. “All the lawyers that I have approached abandon me after they meet Van Schalkwyk.”

But Van Schalkwyk told the UK Guardian that he had not made any promises to Maake. “No agreements were made in terms of him getting a royalty for every vuvuzela ever produced. That was never on the cards.”

Masincedane Sport also claims to have developed the vuvuzela itself after it came across a tin version.

Van Schalkwyk said Maake was the least of his worries. He had invested his house and life savings in the vuvuzela business. “There is a misconception that the vuvuzelas on the streets are all from my company. I can tell you now that they are being produced en masse in Asia and we are not being protected from these predators. Even local companies employ agencies to source branded vuvuzelas on their behalf, who, in turn, run to the Asian market,” he said.

The question of who owns the rights to the vuvuzela appears destined to remain unanswered until well after the World Cup — when it will be irrelevant.
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Alan said:
Enough with the negative waves man

Wouldn't want the Yay S.A gestapo on your case ;)
Click to expand...

These are reality waves. And I'm not scared of the Yay mob - I wish that what they said was for real. I draw a distinction between the soccer tournament and FIFA, the business. The soccer is going to be great. Loads of energy and an all round good vibe. But the business of FIFA is not good for us. The contracts go to the sponsors and other foreigners and if you want in - you pay a small fortune to a company in the USA whether you make a profit or not.

I intend to enjoy the spectacle but I have heard absolutely nothing about 2010/11 being a year in which we don't need to pay taxes, or if we'll even get a reduction. I suppose the yay clan will say that I am getting new roads - are they going to be toll free? I am gettnig a new stadium - so the cities aren't having to pay for them (which means me, and you, and a bunch of other folk).

Sorry, the FIFA machine is the Borg.
 
Well, we did the research months ago about preparing our business for the World Cup. We arranged a meeting with Global Brands the company that handles the FIFA licensing. We were told that to get a license would cost us 10% up front and up to 30% of the Final profits. We would also be locked in to using FIFA approved partners for distribution and we had to come up with the entire sales strategy and forecast up front.

But the additional problem was that the product that we were offering - security markings and holographic ticket protection had already been awarded to a German company. So much for bringing that money to South Africa.

We were then shown a presentation of how FIFA was going to handle the promotion and marketing running up the ACN and ConCup. It looked very smart and slick. But to this day I have not seen hide nor hair of any of the marketing strategy.

I think the World Cup is going to bring a negligible amount of money to South Africa... in fact it may end up costing us more than we make.
 
Garyvdh said:
Well, we did the research months ago about preparing our business for the World Cup. We arranged a meeting with Global Brands the company that handles the FIFA licensing. We were told that to get a license would cost us 10% up front and up to 30% of the Final profits. We would also be locked in to using FIFA approved partners for distribution and we had to come up with the entire sales strategy and forecast up front.

But the additional problem was that the product that we were offering - security markings and holographic ticket protection had already been awarded to a German company. So much for bringing that money to South Africa.

We were then shown a presentation of how FIFA was going to handle the promotion and marketing running up the ACN and ConCup. It looked very smart and slick. But to this day I have not seen hide nor hair of any of the marketing strategy.

I think the World Cup is going to bring a negligible amount of money to South Africa... in fact it may end up costing us more than we make.
Click to expand...

I'd have to agree on the lack of marketing. The only ACN stuff I have seen was some promo material about how wonderful Anglo would be. And the ConCup was a joke as far as promotion goes. Perhaps they are advertising overseas but did they ask you for advertising material? Our view, when we looked into a licensed route, was you paid a huge amount of money and got nothing in return other than putting the FIFA logo on your items.

That license inflates the price and FIFA bitch about how high prices are affecting their ticket sales.
 
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