At the final whistle

History only remembers the victorious. But it also depends on who is doing the writing.
SA2010 has finally ended, leaving us to wonder what is it that we were doing before the footie extravaganza kicked off!

Spain managed to hold on long enough in the face of some very determined opposition to pull off the victory of victories. And the Dutch, Germans and Uruguayans know how close their teams were to the ultimate prize -- it’s not surprising they too welcomed home their players as heroes.

Our contributors were at hand to capture their reception and while the likes of Diego Forlan, Wesley Sneider, Luis Suarez, Arjen Robben, Mesut Ozil and Miroslav Klose might not be sharing the stage with Andreas Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas and David Villa, they will certainly be held in no less regard by the faithful followers of football everywhere.

What will you take away from SA2010?

It hasn’t been short of drama whether it’s about an octopus predicting results, the French national side literally threatening to strike work, Luis Suarez’s ‘Hand of God’, Nigel De Jong’s karate kick on Xavi Alonso in the final game, or the tactics adopted by the Netherlands provoking an angry outburst from Dutch legend Johann Cruyff.

It was been a month full of entertainment and excitement, like time off from our daily, mundane lives. But in Spain, the World Cup’s legacy might extend beyond the realms of sport and entertainment.

Seven of Spain’s starting 11 came from Barcelona, a football club very proud of its Catalan identity. Protestors gathered in Spain and elsewhere in Europe on the eve of the World Cup final and afterwards to press for a separate Catalan state, and it remains to be seen how Spain’s triumph at SA2010 will affect the situation.

Elsewhere, Argentina has legalised same sex marriages and allowed such couples to adopt children. A bold and progressive move that, however, casts a long shadow over football.

Are we ready to accept that some of our favourite footballers may be gay? The furore around ‘revelations’ that some of Germany’s young stars may be gay seems to indicate we have some way to go before homosexuality finds acceptance in football. This is disappointing for me as a fan because football is already looking to address issues such as racism and poverty.

But the good news is that the new English Premier League season is just around the corner, which means I won’t be without football for that long!