Pele is just being very foolish

Is the Brazilian pot calling the South African kettle black?

BBK: It is disheartening when an icon makes an idiot of himself.

More so when that living legend happens to be one Edison Arantes do Nascimento.

I suspect the man better known as Pele has taken leave of his senses, going by his latest comments.

A frequent visitor to South Africa, Pele, it turns out, has been harbouring secret security concerns on his every visit and apparently become a security expert overnight.

"What happened with Togo had an effect on the World Cup organisation," Pele said. "I hope it turns out well."

If we follow Pele's line of thought, it means that the next Copa Mundial, to be held in Brazil, is doomed.

Surely the 2014 World Cup is a huge security risk, given the drug lords and merciless mafiosi to whom killing and maiming are as natural as breathing?

Clearly it would be preposterous to host the World Cup in Brazil, next to Colombia, a country whose national team player Andres Escobar had his body ventilated with 12 bullets for scoring an own goal at the 1994 World Cup.

"People are worried about Nelson Mandela's health. He's a man that has the support of all South Africans. He has control over everything," said Pele.

In his bid to show us that he is a stand-up comedian when he has free time from his energy-sapping campaign of promoting Viagra, Pele offered this pearl of wisdom: "The biggest worry at Fifa is if something happens to Mandela."

Pele says the presence of Mandela could be key to some security issues during the World Cup in South Africa.

Oh really?

I can imagine five months from now seeing Madiba at the forefront of the riot squad, barking instructions on how his troops should leave no stone unturned to ensure that every single one of our visitors is safe for the duration of the June 11 - July 11 spectacle.

The whole thing is rich coming from a man from Brazil.

Unlike in his home country, in this neck of the woods we do not kidnap the family members of players and demand millions of dollars in ransom.

In this country, we have our own squatter camps, with numerous challenges, but these feel like places of safety compared with the favelas of Brazil where brutality is a daily occurrence.

Ask Carlos Alberto Parreira, Joel Santana, Jairo Leal, Francisco Gonzalez and a host of Brazilian footballers plying their trade in the PSL.

The bottom line is that no one can gaze into a crystal ball and predict what will happen.

Criminals will take the chance: they do it all the time.

It is up to us to take every precautionary measure conceivable and hope for the best.

When we hand over the baton for the 2014 World Cup to Brazil we will not denigrate ourselves by dragging Brazil's name through the mud.

That is a game of fools. One fool is one too many and it is disheartening when the fool is a former footballer who allows his ignorance to turn him into an idiot.

'Surely the 2014 World Cup is a huge security risk?'

Sulamérica Trânsito

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