Will The 2010 World Cup Soccer Inflate The Value Property In SA?

The 2010 Soccer Tournament is definitely not comparable with the 1995 Rugby World Cup. In 1995 only 25 000 tourists visited South Africa. FIFA expects some 350 000 foreign tourists in 2010. The prediction is that the soccer fans will spend R10bn on meals, accommodation, transport and merchandise, he said.

?The influx of foreign capital is great, however, insignificant in comparison to the huge spin-offs the publicity will have for South Africa?, says Lodewyk Joubert, CEO of Syndation. ?Over a billion people are expected to follow the month-long tournament between the world?s top 32 soccer playing nations?.

Andrew Golding, CE of the Pam Golding Property Group confirms that the potential spin-offs are far-reaching. As soccer enjoys a large following, countries that have not been exposed to South Africa before will be in 2010.

?Just imagine what will be promoted on TV during this period?, Joubert says. ?Images of our natural beauty ? of Table Mountain, the Kruger National Park and the bushveld, the Southern Cape coastline, the Kalahari and a few other places will be brought to billions of households around the globe.

If we do this correctly, it will be an advertising campaign for luxury lifestyle ownership in South Africa on a scale that has never been seen before!?

Jose Ventura, MD of Pam Golding VIP, made the connection recently that the future of luxury lifestyle ownership lies in stress-free fractional ownership.

"There are clear and distinct differences between property syndications and high-end fractional ownership. The two should not be confused?, says Stephen Rademeyer, of Syndation. ?High-end fractional ownership is a fully managed service with international and local exchange options ? the difference is the hassle-free component which is generally not found with normal property syndication.?

A lot can be learnt from previous World Cups and other tournaments of that magnitude such as the Olympic Games. Greece did not promote the property market to the extent that Barcelona and Sydney did. The latter capitalised on the publicity and promoted Spain and Australia as great places to tour and to own a second home.

Similarly the property prices in Paris escalated by between 60-100% within the first year after the 2002 World Cup in France.

Butana Komphela, chairperson of parliament's sport and recreation committee warned that the experience of the Soccer World Cup in Japan and South Korea showed the job creation forecasts were hugely overestimated. However, even Mbembe agrees the World Cup will boost investment and tourism in the longer term - as long as South Africa can utlise the promotional value the world cup would render.

Lourens van Wyk (Industrial Psychologist)

How To Teach Soccer Ball Skills

Teaching soccer ball skills is not an easy cake, but by using the following tips and techniques, you can take much pain out of the proceedings. But, while you use these techniques in your training session, you must show patience because players may take time to improve their overall game skills.

Getting Control of the Ball

It is important for a coach to teach the players about how to get and keep control of the ball. For example, when they shoot or kick a ball, they should keep their head down if they want the ball to stay down. Likewise, in order to kick the ball high in the air, they should do so by leaning back and getting under the ball.

Here, it is important to note that the ball may go straight up the players do not keep their knee over the ball. To let the ball fly high in the air, the players must keep their knee over the ball while leaning back and getting under the ball.

Teaching Accurate Shooting

In a soccer game, the team that knows how to shoot on target accurately wins. Therefore, teaching your players to shoot the ball with accuracy is very important. One simple way to improve the accuracy in shooting the ball is to give your players a margin of error between two cones.

You can start with as much as four-meter distance between the cones. Then, as you find improvement in the player?s shooting, you should slowly reduce this distance until it is zero and there is no cone. This is a very effective way to enhance your players? focus to the shooting of the ball.

Teaching the Free-Kicks

Your players must know how to make long free kicks. In this training session, you have to have the players of your team practicing the free kicks. But, while the players are attempting the long free kicks, make sure that you instruct the players to keep their non-kicking foot alongside the ball and pointing in the direction you want the ball to go. Instruct the players to slightly lean back and swing their kicking foot back and forth.

Practice makes the players perfect. Therefore, make sure that you use the above techniques extensively in your various training sessions. After a few sessions, you will certainly find improvement in your team?s game. The above techniques are some of the finest way to enhance numerous soccer ball skills to the young players.

Andre Botelho is a recognized authority on the subject of soccer ball skills. His web site, Youth Soccer Drills, provides a wealth of informative soccer articles, resources and tips for soccer coaches, parents and players.

Selecting Soccer Cleats - Nightmare or Lack of Knowledge?

What kind of soccer cleats should you buy? There are so many choices. And all this marketing nonsense out there. Exactly. There is no simple answer to this question. Selecting the proper soccer cleats could be very challenging but it does not have to become a nightmare. With the adequate knowledge you can easily choose the right soccer shoes for yourself or your child, if that's the case.

So, let's see what should you look for while buying soccer cleats? Besides the price, you want to make sure they are comfortable. But how would you know if they give you enough comfort, before you play in them at least few times? You won't. But you can increase your chances of buying comfortable soccer cleats by considering the following factors:
1. Manufacturer. 2. True Leather or Synthetic. 3. Studs Type. 4. Size.

Let's talk about these factors a little bit more.

Manufacturer
Adidas and Nike are the 2 most popular. For a good reason. They are probably the best on the market. While Adidas has manufactured soccer shoes "forever", Nike has made great strides over the last few years. Both companies make equally good quality soccer shoes. I personally never played in Nike's shoes, so I can't tell you about this brand from my experience. My sons played soccer using both brands. After trying them for a while, the younger son sticks to Nike while Pat (older) uses Adidas shoes only. They both are very happy with their selections. Do you know why? Their feet are build differently. Pat has a much wider foot than his brother. Adidas makes its cleats bigger in width than Nike. Basically if you have:
? Wide foot - look for a pair of Adidas Soccer Cleats.
? Skinny foot - look for a pair of Nike Soccer Cleats.

It wouldn't be fair not to mention 2 other brands, almost as good as the above two: Diadora and Puma. Other brands like: Umbro, Kelme, Mitre, Lotto - only if you really can't afford the brands mentioned above or if you just simply like these brands.

True Leather or Synthetic
Upper portion of every soccer shoe is made out of either true leather or synthetic material.

What is better? True leather...in my opinion. And I recommend it to everybody who is serious about playing soccer.

True leather gives you an uncompromising feel of the ball. It molds to your feet producing great comfort. It also lasts longer than synthetic materials. And it is healthier for your feet. Synthetic materials don't let the feet "breathe" building up of sweat, potential blisters and feet problem in the near future.

But...(of course there is a "but") ...True leather cleats cost more. There are few different types of leather used to manufacture soccer cleats. The least expensive is full grain. Sometimes full grain leather soccer shoes could cost only slightly more than "artificial". Spending $10-20 more on much better shoes would be really worth it. The best leather out on the market is K-Leather (Kangaroo). Though more expensive but it is softer, lighter and still durable. If your feet are not growing like the speed of sound and your budget is not too tight, definitely consider buying soccer cleats made from K-Leather.

There is another "but" or an exception to my "non-synthetic soccer shoes" rule: soccer cleats made of high quality synthetic material. These soccer shoes are manufactured with special microfiber technology that upgrades synthetic material, usually a PU (polyurethane). It makes the PU very soft, and strong, giving it similar feel to a natural material. Top Super-Microfiber material can be just as expensive as some leather!

Nowadays almost all-leading sport's footwear manufacturers use microfiber materials. For example, Nike makes their top quality cleats from super lightweight synthetic material called KNG-100 (Air Zoom Total 90) and Nike-Skin (Mercurial Vapor). Even Adidas, for the first time, used microfiber for its newest creation Adidas Predator Absolute (there is a Kangaroo leather model as well). So, my "non-synthetic cleats rule" applies only to a regular (cheap) synthetic material like PU or PVC (polyvinylchloride).

Studs Type
Molded Studs There are practically two different molded soccer cleats on the market.
The traditional - contains a sole that has round studs (usually between ten to fifteen).
The X-Grip (or Bladed shape) - slimmer than round studs, strategically placed in different angles to offer a player a better footing.

Soccer shoes with molded round studs (traditional) are more universal. What I mean is that, this type of soccer cleats are good for hard and firm surfaces as well as for soft grounds. However, they are not really reliable for extreme circumstances like: very hard and dry fields (turf shoes will be the ultimate choice here) or very soft and wet surface (screw-ins). The X-Grip design is manufactured for specific field conditions. In this case, with different length and angles of studs, we have to choose between soccer cleats made specifically for either hard (HG), firm (FG) or soft (SG) ground. Your choice then should be based on the type of fields you play soccer on the most. If you play on all kinds of surfaces, I would recommend-traditional round studs. But if you really want to stick to new style, then buy X-Grip for firm pitch (FG). Of course, the best scenario would be to have two pairs of soccer cleats for different field conditions. But who can afford it? Not to many of us.

Replaceable (screw-ins) cleats are very optional. Most young soccer players do not need them. With the poor quality of most youth fields, screw-ins just wouldn't get enough use to warrant purchase. Unless, you play a lot on great, soft fields and have extra cash (screw-ins can not be the only soccer cleats you have). Also some leagues do not allow this type of equipment.

Size
It is very important that the soccer cleats you buy must fit perfectly. This means as snug as possible, tight to the foot (sorry parents, you can't have growing room in soccer cleats). Close-fitting shoes facilitate the best touch (the feel for the ball). Soccer shoes I usually get, for my older son (16 years old) and myself, are ? size smaller. This is, because leather expands after a while and then molds to the foot. For my 10 year old, since synthetic does not stretch and cleats in junior size are not that expensive, I buy his exact shoe size.

Soccer Cleats - More Tips and Recommendations

Adrian Gumowski has been involved in soccer for thirty years. As a former player and now as a parent of two youth soccer players Adrian shares his knowledge on Youth Soccer Equipment and other soccer related topics at my-youth-soccer-guide.com

Soccer predictions from the likelihood theory

Though ecobika exactly knows that a few of you are fed up with betting after yesterday's very annoying and upsetting results happened from NFL and NBA to Premiership and Primera division (ecobika was very disappointed too), if you think gambling seriously, you should forget everything. New day, new possibilities, new likelihoods, new probabilities. Betting is the same investment like trading stocks.

This is a special edition of ecobika.

Ecobika tries to figure out the probabilities some of today's matches. Knowing the probabilities, you can make your decisions easier, if the odds reflect the probabilities or not, correctly priced or not, is there any value there or not?

The method is only and only based on the stats!

West Ham v Fulham Probabilities: Home win: 47.3% X 25.2% 2: 26.9% Under 2.5: 49.8% Over 2.5 50.2% Correct score: 1-1 has the probability of 12%

Bastia v Valenciannes H: 45.7% X: 27.7% 2: 26.3% Under 2.5: 59.6% Over 2.5 40.4% Correct score: 1-0 has the probability of 13.5%, 1-1 has the probability of 12.9%

Leiria v Belenenses H: 46.2% X: 30.4% 2: 23.3% Under 2.5: 69.4% Over 2.5: 30.6% Correct score: 1-0 17.1% 0-0 14.4%

Cesena v Mantova H: 38.3% X: 32.4% 2: 29.3% Under 2.5: 72.2% Over 2.5 27.8% Correct score: 1-0 16% 0-0 16%

Arezzo v Catania H: 51.5% X: 26.2% 2: 21.9% Under 2.5: 57.6% Over 2.5: 42.4% Correct score: 1-0 14% 1-1 12.3% betting uk soccer

NBA: most likely straight winners (moneyline): Indiana, Denver, New Jersey.

These probabilities are calculated from the league tables only. The probabilities does not guarantee win.

However, the ball is round, good luck with your soccer picks. Bet with confidence, bet with gamebookers ecobika do the same.

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