There is something about sports and booze; we see it more in football and rugby but am sure it happens in other sports too.

But during the world cup, the beer consumption goes up; indeed just before the world cup, i remember pub owners in the match cities saying that they were stocking on beer big time.

German and British fans top the list; you can imagine how the fans celebrate the team win or loss. At the world cup stadium, fans just get beers, you don't see many holding cans of soda, I guess its not cool.

You can imagine the beer that will be consumed on sunday when Germany meets Britain. It will be great for the local pubs.

The funniest was these South Korean fans, a man and woman, who were sharing some booze, which had straws and was carefully packed on the head.

I think beer is one of the indicators that the fans are spending as they should; that is why the big footballing countries should stay in the draw; the economy will be much better am sure.

Just when I thought the world was done with the Vuvuzela debate, I receive this press release.

But it teaches be that companies know how to take advantage of events, I think this company went out its way to manufacture or upgrade one of its products or better still, its just the same only that they have gotten a new marketing tag.

Either way, its a chance to market, only that it has been overtaken by time because people have moved on. I guess the company execs are not even in South Africa but they sound like they are forever in the thick of things.

Here it goes...

Not all TV broadcasters mute irritating vuvuzela shrieks when showing World Cup 2010 matches. New AVS Audio Editor effectively bans the annoying noise with specially developed Vuvuzela Remover filters.

Online Media Technologies Ltd., the owner of AVS4YOU Project releases today a special edition of AVS Audio Editor with the extra Vuvuzela Remover feature.

The Vuvuzela Remover feature contains 6 filters adjusted to reject frequencies typical of this African horn. Software engineers designed the algorithm in such a way that it effectively reduces irritating noises up to 99 percent without damaging audio quality.

The Vuvuzela Remover can be applied in combination with the intelligent Noise Removal filter. You indicate the noise type and save it as a sample. Basing on this sample, AVS Audio Editor 6.1 will automatically search, detect and remove similar disturbances such as horn roars, whistles, hisses, etc. from other audio- and video files.

“One feels real adrenaline rush while yelling and blaring in the stadium. In a room, where there's not so much space, vuvuzela wheezes become hard to endure. AVS Audio Editor 6.1 deletes excess noises without mercy,” said Tatyana Danilova, PR Manager, Online Media Technologies Ltd.

It is the first World Cup in the African continent; was well organized by all standards and most of all, FIFA website broke the record for the most unique hits. On Friday June 25th, another record is set to tumble as Johannesburg resident Thulani Ngcobo, completes his feat of attending the most World Cup matches.

The current record is 20 matches and Ngcobo is attempting to watch 38, entering the Guinness World Record for the most matches watched at a FIFA World Cup.

MTN organized a competition last year for the last fan standing and Ngcobo was the lucky winner, to break the record, he will travel more than 17,000 kilometers and watch more than 3420 minutes of football within the month long tournament.

But how does he make it?

Well, Ngcobo enjoys helicopter ride and Friday will not be any different, he will watch the first match at Nelspruit then take a chopper to Pretoria, where he will watch the late game.

“I must be the luckiest football fan at this World Cup and I am so grateful that I am experiencing all of this, because I am absolutely crazy about football. I kept looking around me, to see my girlfriend next to me and the organizers of my prize, to make sure it was real” said Ngcobo.

After the match tomorrow night, Ngcobo will join officials from MTN and Guinness Book of Records for a press conference and celebrations; its a dream come true for him.

For Ngcobo, its Ayoba time!

There has been many theories advanced on why football attracts fanatical support; for some, its the game of the poor and middle class, who have all the time to play in open field while the rich are locked in gated communities and high flats playing video games and watching TV. I think the case of Brazil and the rise of most footballers from humble beginnings can reinforce this theory.

For some, football is the game that unites all religions, its a universal language that people play the best way they know how. Just look at the support on the field and TV audiences.

For some, football is the game of men and not for sissies although I think rugby players would contents this, given that football players are known to fall down and complain at the slightest touch. The other day somebody commented on twitter that he was surprised Ronaldo did not fall down when he was given a high five after the Portugal game with Ivory Coast.

For some, football is the game that surpasses all ages, both young and old; it is a time when you can celebrate in a stupid way and your kids, workmates and other folks will not think you are acting immature.

For some, football transcends gender, both men and women get emotional although Africa is yet to accept that women can be true football supporters and contribute to intelligent football discussions.

The gender aspect is still an issue; ever wondered why parents take their boys to the stadium and not girls, yet you see youthful women and older ones on the stadium; is it that we are jumping a gap in the support or girls are not interested in football at an early age?

Anyway, what is football to you?

The other day I was at Mandela square late in the evening, it was cold and chilly but for the football fans who have braved worse winter weather, I guess it was nothing.

There were groups of fans, chanting slogans and working hard to outdo each other.

One corner, Argentina fans were singing their voices hoarse, Brazil was in another corner, Mexico was somewhere in between and Mexico was just there, then there were these two Swiss fans, who had painted themselves red and were only in shorts.

I guess the fans have different ways of expressing themselves and believe it or not, the stripping helped attract more women to their side; works well huh? In all these chaos, I happened to be standing next to a cute guy, from one of the South American countries; he did not speak much of English but he had a lisp and I made sure he talked and talked, forget that I was not getting half of what he was saying.

It was a pleasant atmosphere that allowed people to do things they would normally do, talk to strangers and just jump up and down. Vuvuzela or no Vuvuzela, the place can get noisy.

So, in all the mayhem, I got to know who are the noisiest fans of the day- Argentina- I think they can out-shout the vuvuzela.

Tonight Nigeria is taking on South Korea but there is no celebration because Nigeria is fading fast from its past... but that doesn't mean that Nigerians will not enjoy and take advantage of the World Cup; if there is no win on the field, then business should win.

Nigeria is one of Africa's footballing power houses; even when they don't have the best team, they are always expected to perform well, after all, they are one of the richest nations.

It was fair for us to have legitimate expectations that Nigeria would at least go into the second round. Do better than countries like Slovenia and New zealand. But this has not been the case.

Forget that Kaita, seen as a rising star, decided to make a fool of himself in a way that he ruled himself out of future games, the team never looked like a shadow of its glorious past, forget represent the likes of Okocha and Oliseh.

After the red card, Nigerians declared that he was not welcome home; that he should go straight to Belgium where he plies his trade. Some argued that African players do not take their teams seriously, especially those based in Europe.

While all that was going on, it did not mean that Nigerians living in South Africa and those visiting were in mourning; they are busy talking business. This ensures that even if they lost in the pitch, they don't lose off it.

By default, I happened to be at the right place when someone was invited for the party before the party and I joined in. Its not bad crashing parties especially when there are no many options.

So I went to the party, there were mainly Nigerians and Cameroonians and on that day, Cameroon was playing and the people did not look very happy. They were not even impressed when I suggested that Cameroon players were aging; but my defense was that I may not know much because Kenya is good at Marathon; eventually we were friends and talked a lot about African football.

Back to the party, I was told that it was to showcase Nigerian and Cameroonian businesses and there was a giant stand to show the array of opportunities as well as music to make sure the day was crowned.

There was so much, I didn't even know that there were Yoruba descendants of Southern Africa. It maybe an avenue for someone to make money but the info was impressive.

I got chatting with one of the guys preparing barbecue or nyama choma about business prospects in South Africa and he was more optimistic that its better and is improving with time.

All the eating and drinking was good but I must admit that Nigeria seized the opportunity to market itself as a business destination. We have adverts about tourism in Brazil but I wonder why other African countries did not think of the opportunity to market themselves.

Imagine if the Kenya Tourism board had even a small table at one of the joints where fan who have tickets and those who don't are gathering; you never know about the prospects.

You may think Nigeria did not do well on the field but in terms of generating business, I think they beat other countries by using the World Cup to attract some positive attention.

The other day, a friend texted me to say that she was sad Nigeria was losing. I don't remember her being a football fan so out of courtesy I said "it's great that Nigeria has such a fan". The reply made me laugh "I am not a football fan, I a m a World Cup fan."

It reminded me of how this month there will be several people in pubs and restaurants silencing others with their punditry. Some have no clue; others do but they all claim to be experts of sorts.

Given that matches are played every day, women have no choice but to learn some terms and withstand the two hour torture without the soap operas or movies; after all, it happens once every four years.

The problem with us women is that even when we know nothing about the team or the game, we want to contribute. In the process, the names are mangled and jumbled and if you ask deeper questions like who is the captain of that team or where does this footballer play, you realize the knowledge is based on quick sand.

Its not wrong to take a quick lesson and it doesn't mean that all men know about soccer but even in a pub, all I want to do is watch it; don't talk to me or offer your punditry, don't bring funny celebrations or over do it because we are all there to have fun.

So, we all have our version of overnight pundits and others who don't care but whatever it is; I think people are allowed because it is the world cup!

Its always easy for a losing team to find someone or something to blame; thats why I was shocked Robert Green did not blame the Vuvuzela for his howler against USA. Green has taken some beating and he owned up to his mistake, continuing the English weakness in the goalkeeping position.

The funniest was Patrice Evra, French Captain, who blamed the dull and comma inducing draw on the Vuvuzela. He argued that their feet could not move smoothly because of the deafening noise.

During the Confederations cup, Xabi Alonso was leading the chorus for those who think the Vuvuzela should be banned, I cant wait to see how Spain will perform and whether the gadget will be banned.

In all the hulla ballooo, it has sounded like the "Africans" are the ones responsible for all the noise, but look again around the stadium and at least around Sandton, and you will get the idea how the gadget is popular.

The visiting fans have even learnt the rhythms and are busy blowing it everywhere; it has become the annoying sound we all want to hear, after all its the world cup.

BBC has indicated that it will cancel the noise with a high tech device or whatever it is; either way, we have been watching South African soccer with all that noise, maybe BBC pundits should learn how to shout like the other pundits.

My conspiracy theory mind thinks that either way, people will look for something negative just because this world cup is a success and is in Africa!

When FIFA announced that South Africa will host the 2010 world cup finals, it was instant jubilation for the country and indeed the continent.

Many countries especially around southern Africa saw it as an opportunity to attract international attention by hosting training camps given the weather is almost similar. This was a legitimate expectation because in 2006, small towns and cities in Europe got lots of attention by hosting teams.

But as time went on and the rebels in Cabinda decided to attack an African team, it became clear that teams would not be pitching tents in any of the countries, preferring to be based in Europe than Africa; even some African countries had to go to europe because teams could not accept to play practice matches locally.

Portugal and Brazil did many of us proud by playing games against Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, I think it was specially nice that Brazil played in Zim, at least they were not scared of Comrade Bob Mugabe. Can you imagine if it was England?

So, it was clear that the immense benefits would be to South Africa, and all sectors, especially tourism, had invested heavily in ensuring that football fans did not go home after the matches, but proceeded on safari.

Largely, it may look like other African countries did not benefit much but I think the benefits are there. On my flight from Nairobi to Jozi, there was a huge contigent of Chinese soccer fans, who were in Kenya on Safari and a smaller Swiss fan base, which was in the country for three days (I was eavesdropping on the conversation with SAA crew over Yellow fever certificate).

I am sure southern Africa countries will get visitors after the world cup and maybe others will venture further north of the Limpopo river to experience what Africa has to offer. Am sure much of the benefits will be felt later; maybe with increase in tourism numbers but some benefits such as marketing the continent as an investment destination will be harder to audit.

Ends

In March 2008, Nairobi was supposed to host Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meeting. This is a huge meeting, ICANN uses about $ 2 million for these meetings, am sure you know what it means for the economy.

But the events that followed the 2007 elections meant that the meeting was cancelled, it was such a shame but that was understandable; after all, you do not want the people who control internet resources to fall into the traps of rival tribal gangs or to be caught in the cross fire.

After another round of presentations last year, the Kenya delegation led by Kenic and the Communications Commission of Kenya was able to convince the ICANN community that Kenya is safe enough, and they agreed to host the meeting this March.

We have been busy sweeping the roads and upgrading the hotels just to make sure that the most important ICANN community is happy, but they have never been, and I do not think they will ever be, if you ask me. I have been talking to sources within the organizing committee and ICANN has always had one niggling problem after another.

Last Friday's fracas with the muslims seems to have tipped the balance; ICANN now is contemplating moving the meeting to another safer city.

But if you ask me or any other ordinary Kenyan, I think ICANN does not understand the country and how it operates. Since 1998, Kenya has never been secure, according to US and UK embassies, yet its their installations that make us targets.

For whatever reasons, the country has always been rated poorly security wise, but which city is safe? New York? J' Burg? Cairo? Cassablanca? Am sure this is open to debate.

I think ICANN has its double standards; if they were truly concerned about the security, the meeting in Seoul would not have taken place; South Korea is always under alert because of North Korea nuclear intentions.

The meeting in Mexico city would not have gone on, after all every one there is said to carry a gun and the senior executives within ICANN membership were at risk of kidnappings. But the meetings took place.

So, why all the security farce about Nairobi?

I would love to point out a similar incident during the 2005 or around there Cricket world cup, where New Zealand forfeited their match with Kenya in Nairobi because of security situation. Sri Lanka agreed to play their match in Nairobi provided they were given top notch security, the government obliged.

By the time the plane carrying the Sri Lanka cricket team entered the Kenyan air space, they were escorted by helicopter gunships and all the other stuff you see in the movies. But Sri Lanka soon realized that no one was bothered with them; we whipped them and by the time they were going back to the airport, they took taxis and realized that no one cares.

In short, ICANN should know that they will come, they will hold their meeting, they will go away, and no one will probably remember they were here. How many people know about ICANN and what it does? How many people know that the people present are online millionaires?

ICANN has made demands that the meeting be moved to the UNEP Complex in Gigiri, and that the government should pay for all the charges bla bla... I think this is a move to alienate themselves from the ordinary kenyans. Getting to Gigiri is hectic let alone getting through the mean UN security staff.

Trust me, I have had my share of security incidences in Nairobi, but I do not think its worth canceling a meeting.

From my sources, I am told the government is paying for the gala dinner and all that, in other countries, ICANN has paid for that. So I think this is just a way for ICANN to make their demands and demonstrate their authority.

I am not saying that security measures should be ignored, but just know that poor security rating means more hardship allowance for the UN and embassy staff, so its in their interest to show Kenya on fire all the time.

One thing you should know that Kenya is a highly political company, all year round, stupid politics and we the media love it and exalt it, so deal with that. When you come and when you go, we will remain the same, and it does not mean ICANN will change anything, so get over it.

By the way, most people who will come will be holed up in lavish 5-star hotels where the thugs will not reach. The insecurity problem is for people like us who will have to walk home and deal with the neighborhood thugs.

The upshot of it is that ICANN should come, hold their meeting, give us the revenue, visit Maasai Mara and all the other areas, and go home. I am sure there will be enough cops guarding everywhere.

So, insecure or not, I think the meeting should go on. If you guys are not convinced, then you can move the meeting to wherever you want!

Ends