Liverpool rebuffs bad 2010 press

21 May 2010 - 02:00
By Mogomotsi Selebi

MEDIA reports in England have not been kind to South Africa hosting the World Cup in 20 days, but Liverpool FC have thrown their weight behind the country.

MEDIA reports in England have not been kind to South Africa hosting the World Cup in 20 days, but Liverpool FC have thrown their weight behind the country.

Several tabloid newspapers have painted horrible pictures of a crime-ridden country on the brink of a race war after the murder of rightwinger and white supremacist Eugene Terre'Blanche. They have even warned the Barmy Army, who'll be descending on our shores in June, to wear "knife vests" to protect them from knife-wielding maniacs running wild.

"I have certainly not heard anything negative about the World Cup coming to South Africa and there is only excitement here," Liverpool community coach and chaplain Billy Bygroves said in Pretoria on Wednesday.

"We have a community project where we teach boys and girls about safer sex, as well as gun crime and knife crime, and we are working with Everton FC," Bygroves said, referring to the Reds' Merseyside rivals.

He said their first interaction with SA children started on Wednesday with coaching clinics in Mamelodi. Yesterday they went to the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Rustenburg and they will go to Soweto before returning to the UK on Sunday.