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Published: Friday June 19, 2009 MYT 2:16:00 PM
Updated: Friday June 19, 2009 MYT 2:40:13 PM

Football: Can the vuvuzelas be kept out of next year's World Cup?

RUSTENBURG, South Africa: Take away the vuvuzela trumpet, and you take away the essence of the South African football fan.

So when European complaints came in that the relentless noise during Confederations Cup games was paining their sensitive ears, South Africans showed little compassion.

"MOVES TO BAN VUVUZELAS," news billboards across the capital Pretoria blared on Thursday as fans became outraged.

A Brazil fan blows his "vuvuzela" (stadium horn) prior to the start of a Confederations Cup Group B soccer match between the US and Brazil, at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday. - AP

"This is our voice. We sing through it," said Chris Massah Malawai, a 23-year-old company owner who was cheering, and blaring, for Bafana Bafana as they beat New Zealand on Wednesday.

"It makes me feel the game."

At 17, student Rolebolige Matolindizo and his trumpet are inseparable.

"My vuvuzela will be part of my life," he said.

Chief World Cup organizer Danny Jordaan has already said how the roof architecture of the Soccer City Stadium for the next year's final would have the vuvuzela noise cascading down the stand and produce "the noisiest World Cup ever."

In essence, it would be like banning European fans from singing and roaring at games.

And FIFA itself has promoted the vuvuzela as something uniquely South African on par with the makarapa, the crazy and colorful miner's helmets stitched together from recycled materials.

At least those are hard on the eyes only.

"I know there are people who are not happy with that," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said of the vuvuzelas, but then added that it wasn't as bad as a night on the town.

"When you are in a pop concert or you go to a disco in the night, I think your hearing will be much more challenged than in a football field."

On Thursday, Brazil striker Robinho complained about not being able to hear instructions from coach Dunga because of the vuvuzelas.

Brazil still beat the United States 3-0. Dunga said the issue needed to be looked at.

"This is something that needs to be decided by the people in charge," the former Brazil captain said.

"It's a matter of culture," Dunga added.

"You have to weigh in the pros and the cons, see if it's negative or positive."

Spain seemed ready to accept the horns.

"It's true that they make a lot of noise, but we'll just have to get used to them," Spain forward Santi Cazorla said.

FIFA has said it will discuss the instrument with the local organizing committee of the World Cup, but not before the end of the Confederations Cup.

The official vuvuzela is a plastic horn in colorful colors that is 61 centimeters (24 inches) long and weighs no more than 110 grams (4 ounces).

The name roughly translates from Zulu to making a lot of noise.

Stadiums need only to be half full and the din of the trumpets already exceeds the noise level in many a European stadium.

It usually starts as soon as the first fans enter the stadiums and continues throughout the game, turning into a monotonous blare as if produced by a million bees.

Others say it sounds like elephants blowing their trunks.

"Our fans blow their vuvuzelas before the match. Maybe because they know that they might not be celebrating afterwards," Jordaan joked.

Beville Bachmann has seen plenty of controversy surrounding the trumpet of which he now co-owns the trademark.

"We make no excuses about the noise," he said in a telephone interview.

"We are quite proud of it."

Sales have gone in the hundreds of thousands and are expected to reach record levels with the hype around the World Cup.

Bachmann said the origins may go back to the use of kudu antelope horns.

"It is no longer environmentally friendly to put down a kudu for this," Bachmann said.

"We think plastic is better."

And like it or not, the vuvuzela will be there next year, right through the July 11, 2010, World Cup final.

"When we go to South Africa, we go to Africa," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said.

"It is noisy. It is something else than in the rest of world."

There is only one way to deal with them, Bachmann said.

"If you cannot beat them, join them," he said.

"If you find it offensive on the ears, take a vuvuzela and blow it. It will no longer be an irritation." - AP


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