WITH the salient elements in place after a much-publicised build-up, the FIFA 2010 World Cup story is being contentiously introduced with a spate of injuries and the usual hullabaloo about the ball to be used at the South African spectacle.

At curtain call, news is that England central defender Rio Ferdinand, striker Didier Drogba from the Ivory Coast and Nigerian midfielder John Obi Mikel are poised to miss the tournament through injury.

Just yesterday, it emerged that Netherlands forward Arjen Robben was also doubtful after being injured in a warmup game against Hungary.

This inevitably raises the question of just how prudent these countries have been in their preparatory phases, since Ferdinand, for instance, was reportedly injured during a team practice session and Drogba in a warm-up game against Japan.

In an environment where competition for starting spots in a squad of 23 is a fierce one, with career and reputation at stake, the probability for these occurrences increases ten-fold and is hardly surprising.

Yet the show will go on, and seemingly without the passionate Drogba who, along with Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon, is arguably the most eminent African footballer on the world stage.

Indeed, the prolific Chelsea man would have represented Africa’s best chance of nabbing the coveted World Cup trophy, despite the odds against such an enthralling prospect.

Simultaneously, the new Jabulani ball manufactured by Adidas has been the subject of scathing criticisms from at least five goalkeepers, including the injured Julio Cesar of Brazil, Gianluigi Buffon of Italy and Americans Marcus Hahnemann and Tim Howard.

Brazilian coach Dunga has since added his voice to the list of the disgruntled, but attracted an equally derisive response from the FIFA general secretary who insinuated that ‘a bad workman quarrels with

his tool’.

The basic complaints about the ball — which derives its name from the Zulu language and means ‘to celebrate’ — are that it is too light and the flight path unpredictable. If this

is so, then the goalkeepers have

a legitimate grievance, since anticipating the trajectory of shots is their substantive responsibility on the field of play.

However, to be fair to FIFA, the balls were made available to all the competing teams many months before the tournament, and it would have been the responsibility of these nations to get used to it, instead of whining like schoolboys at the proverbial ninth hour.

Still, this has done little to quell the displeasure of football fans in South Africa who have dubbed the contentious implement — which has 11 colours symbolic of the number of players on the field as well as the number of languages spoken in South Africa — as ‘Joke-ball-lani’.

Another factor which could prove decisive in the tournament is the altitude, with at least five of the nine playing venues being more than 1,700 metres above sea level, which triggers memories of Mexico in 1970 and 1986.

But this scenario has served to spur the creative juices of some countries, with the England players reportedly sleeping in oxygen tents and the Japanese and South Koreans teams having simulated South African conditions long before arriving on

the continent.

Of note is that two yeas ago FIFA moved to ban international venues that are 2,500 metres or more above sea level, but encountered howls of protests, with Bolivia — which perpetually uses its incredible altitude as an unfair advantage against its opponents, including Argentina, whom they hammered 6-1 in the CONMEBOL qualifying series in La Paz — understandably protesting loudest of all.

Ironically, Argentine coach Diego Maradona was among the list of protestors back then, but would have been singing a different tune after the humiliation suffered by his team in an altitude above 3,000 metres in treacherous Bolivia.

In returning to the business end of the World Cup, there is no doubt as to the most popular football nation in the world — Brazil. It is noted that in a recent survey, over 70 per cent of South African football fans named the five-time world champions as their second favourite team behind their own Bafana Bafana, and would root for the Samba Boys if and when the hosts are eliminated.

And as Jamaicans bemoan yet another World Cup Finals without the Reggae Boyz, they, like virtually everybody else across the globe, are feverishly debating the likely winners of this year’s edition.

At this stage, Brazil are the unmistakable forerunners, with Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, England and Argentina also in with a chance, according to the pundits.