By [Ryan Bailey](http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/blog/dirty-tackle?author=Ryan+Bailey)
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For those who don't ride on the crest of every Internet-football-hot-topic wave, the unrelenting foghorn-esque noise you have heard at World Cup games is produced by an instrument known as a vuvuzela -- a three-foot-long plastic trumpet traditionally blown throughout games to create an atmosphere. However, by pumping out sound up to 130 decibels -- 10 decibels above the human pain threshold -- they also are associated with causing hearing loss and communication problems on the pitch.
Some 20 years after being introduced to the game in the early 1990s, the instrument came to prominence on the world stage during the 2009 Confederations Cup. TV stations were upset by the “goat being slaughtered” timbre, while players complained that they couldn’t hear themselves think over the din. “It doesn’t allow you to concentrate and it’s unbearable,” Spanish player Xabi Alonso said at the time. FIFA head honcho Sepp Blatter, however, pooh-poohed calls to ban the vuvuzela for World Cup 2010, insisting that we should not attempt to “Europeanize” the African tournament.
[Photos:Wild fans celebrating all over South Africa]
As expected, the vuvu has caused quite a kerfuffle at WC 2010 thus far. The drone has been giving TV networks and commentators grief, and FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke has reportedly toyed with the idea of handing out free earplugs in stadiums to avoid the barrage of lawsuits from the newly hard of hearing.
World Cup organizing committee head Danny Jordaan addressed the issue Sunday, and refused to rule out a ban. From the AFP:
“We have asked for no vuvuzelas during national anthems or during stadium announcements. I know it’s a difficult question,” he added, saying that "we’re trying to manage the best we can.
"We heard from the broadcasters and individuals and it’s something we are evaluating on an on-going base.
Jordaan told the BBC in an interview that he had to consider the option of banning the trumpets.
“If there are grounds to do so, yes,” he said, asked if a ban was an option.
France captain Patrice Evra added fuel to the fire, claiming that the vuvuzela is the reason his side were so awful on Friday night:
“We can’t sleep at night because of the vuvuzelas. People start playing them from 6 a.m. We can’t hear one another out on the pitch because of them.”
The vuvuzela is clearly much more than an irritating novelty; it’s a divisive issue that is threatening the health of fans, affecting the quality of performances and ultimately putting people off of tuning in (will you honestly feel enthused to watch Slovakia vs. Paraguay knowing you’ll have to endure 90 minutes of the sound of an angry beehive going through a blender?).
[Video:A closer look at the vuvuzelas]
Yet at the same time, Blatter is right (for once) when he says we should not impose Western values on South Africa. A ban would rob the tournament of part of its cultural identity, leaving thousands of locals perplexed: could you imagine being told by an international body that you could no longer drink beer at American football games, or fall asleep during baseball? The South Africans wouldn’t take too kindly to having a national institution removed.
As a compromise, perhaps the vuvuzela could be adapted so it isn’t quite so loud? Or maybe it could be adjusted to produce a nice noise like the sound of John Mayer gargling honey? Image: AP
El otro día enganché un programa en nat geo o discovery, que mostraban como habían construido algunos de los estadios. Cuando terminaba apareció cuando inauguraron uno, con un partido de la liga local, y meta vuvuzelas los muchachos. Evidentemente no es por el mundial o lo que fuera, es su “folklore”. Insoportable por cierto :mrgreen:.
Aparte, ya podemos catalogar a la Jabulani como un fracaso, salvo por el partido de Alemania.
O sea, el espíritu de esta pelota supuestamente era que se vean más goles. Favorecer a los delanteros y “cagar” de alguna manera a los arqueros. Bueno, es un fracaso, porque cualquier tiro de larga distancia se va a la recontra mierda, cosa que no pasaba con pelotas más pesadas.
Ya vendría siendo la hora de que se dejen de romper las pelotas con esta pelota, valga la redundancia (:mrgreen:). Los buenos delanteros hacen goles con cualquier pelota. Y los buenos arqueros se van a adaptar a cualquier pelota. Y si por ver dos goles más en un Mundial hay que bancarse 200 tiros colgados a la segunda bandeja, me parece que no vale para nada la pena.
Ayer, por ejemplo, me extrañaba la notoria imprecisión de Verón con la pelota. Al margen de que ESTUVO impreciso, colgó un tiro libre que antes por ahí lo clavaba al ángulo. Cuando a Messi le pasó lo mismo, ya estaba puteando a la Jabulani, a Adidas y a la FIFA. Hasta ahora, por los partidos que vi, la pelotita esa de mierda se encargó más de impedir goles que de hacerlo.
adhiero a todo lo que dijeron de la pelota y también critico a los cesped de las diferentes canchas. La pelota pica y se vá, es una garcha. Demasiado corto y demasiado mojado…es peor que en el fútbol inglés.
No entiendo porque soplan esa mierda durante todo el partido. Si lo soplaran un rato, ocasionalmente, bueno. Y es mas, tambien son algunos extranjeros, porque en el partido de Alemania vi a unos cuantos que tambien soplaban la vuvuzela sin parar. Ojala la puedan prohibir porque es algo espantoso. Creo que es lo unico criticable que le encuentro a este final hasta ahora.
pero ademas, no entiendo la onda de hacer ese ruido, o sea son pelotudos? por que un bombo bueno, mantiene cierto ritmo, o lo que sea, pero este sonido como zumbando es la mayor pelotudez que vi en mi vida
aca en la cancha no entran con bandoneones a cantar mi buenos aires querido.
ademas que tiene que ver que sea africa con que toquen una bocina todo el partido?