National News
85% of SA positive after SWC
2010-07-15 07:44
Email | Print
Johannesburg - Almost all South Africans watched a 2010 FIFA World Cup game on television, a survey has found.
Twenty-six percent attended a game at a stadium and 34% went to a fan festival, according to a telephonic Ipsos Markinor poll of 400 South Africans in metropolitan areas, conducted on Monday and Tuesday.
The survey found that 85% of respondents had more hope for a happy future for all South Africans after the football tournament than before the tournament.
Profound effect on South Africans
"The 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," researchers said.
According to the poll, more men than women attended matches at stadiums and fan festivals, but there was no gender difference among television viewers.
"As expected, a larger proportion of those in higher income groups attended a match, with 43% of them earning between R10 000 and R15 999 a month and 49% earning more than R16 000 a month," the survey found.
Ipsos Markinor had previously indicated that ticket prices could deter many South Africans from attending matches.
'One month of happiness in SA'
Many participants told researchers the World Cup "was a success and it brought a lot of unity to people in the country", "was excellent, it changed my view of soccer because I was not a soccer fan" and "was one month of happiness in South Africa".
Eleven percent of respondents said the tournament had made no difference to their feelings about the future, and only four percent said they now had less hope for a happy future.
"This small pessimistic group included more males than females, but included people from all race and age groups."
Researchers said almost two-thirds of respondents had indicated that they owned a vuvuzela - which was one of the main features of the World Cup, attracting both positive and negative comments in the worldwide media.
