SA should focus on winning the World Cup off the pitch.

Byline: Paul Bannister

National branding SA should focus on winning the World Cup off the pitch FOOTBALL aficionados looking for the secret formula to Bafana Bafana's unlikely tournament success will not find it here. This is about the nation's success, not that of the national football team.

Hosting the World Cup is SA's next defining moment after the advent of democracy and presents a distinct opportunity, in front of an estimated global TV audience of 30-billion viewers and 20000 visiting media people, to shape the way the world looks at SA. If SA successfully delivers a full-colour (loud and proud), world-class World Cup, we will create a springboard to boost the country's global competitiveness.

As a nation brand, SA seized April 27 1994 to change the way the world looked at us and, more importantly, the way we looked at ourselves. Nelson Mandela turned the 1995 Rugby World Cup into a massive nation-building programme.

Today's sensationalist media coverage of the outspoken oratory of the ill-informed is proving to be divisive at a time when we need to be unified in our …