World Cup

In only 15 years, South Africa lost 20 per cent of its professionals — about 800,000 people — to emigration. White South Africans saw few opportunities at home and better pay abroad. But the 2010 World Cup began to change all that. South Africans are coming home.

The 2011 Rugby World Cup will be the biggest sporting event ever held in New Zealand. More than 100,000 fans are expected to travel to the Southern Hemisphere for the games and the parties that start on 10 September and end on 22 October next year.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter opposes using technology to help referees make decisions. But the outcry over mistakes such as Frank Lampard's disallowed goal in England's World Cup loss to Germany seems to have changed things.

The broadcasting and marketing revenues from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa include a record $1 billion in sponsorship deals — 80 per cent more than in 2006, according to market analyst Sportcal. And that during a worldwide recession.

Just how dramatic was Landon Donovan's 91st-minute goal in Wednesday's win-or-go-home US-Algeria World Cup game? Well, it caused Twitter to collapse temporarily, and it might have been the single biggest driver of Internet traffic ever.