Used to be a time when if you were a football fan going to a match, the only things you had to take with you would be your team scarf and a rattle but times have changed and these days stab vests are also useful additions, especially if you are planning on attending the World Cup being held in South Africa in June.

Well if you ar thinking of going to the Republic of South Africa for the Football World Cup, you might first like to read the Annual Report by the South African Police for the time period 1st April 2008-31 March 2009 which you can read and download from this site here.

And boy are those figures frightening.  Most frightening are the number of murders and robberies involving knifes and also the numbers of male and female rapes.  And that is why the site Proteektorvest.com, that is hosting the report are also advertising personalised stab proof vests that you can order online.  They will then be delivered to your hotel ready for your arrival in Johannesburg or Pretoria during the world cup.  Clever thinking boys.

News of this bit of entrepreneurial flair has upset the South African authorities who feel that the information that there were 18,148 murders in the republic last year might deter potential victims tourists from visiting South Africa.  They were further incensed when two professional robbers who were interviewed on TV said:

A private TV station, ETV, aired a news piece looking at crime in South Africa ahead of the Football World Cup. The TV reporter interviewed two "hardened criminals" (concealing their identities) who confessed to all of South Africa their plans to rob tourists planning to visit the country during the World Cup.

They said something along the lines of they "will steal whatever they can, from US dollars to cameras to jewellery BUT, they don’t really want to kill any tourists because they want them to come back".

Well that is comforting to know.  They don't really want to kill any tourists but then again those interviewed are professional robbers, the part time robbers might have different ideas.  These robbers waiting for the World Cup remind me a bit of bears waiting in rivers for the Salmon to come and we all know what happens then.  Killing, lots of killing.

Rich Mkhondo (nice name), the World Cup organising committee spokesman condemned the sales of the vests as an "abominable money making ploy using fear tactics" and went on to say in a statement, "Sport fans visiting South Africa have never needed stab vests. They will not and will never need them during the World Cup...The marketing of stab vests is a joke."

Now I am not one for taking wild guesses at what the future holds but I think I can safely and sadly say now, that come June we will be reading horror stories in our press of British Football fans being robbed and murdered at the World Cup.  Just how many though is anybodies guess.

Hat tip to Helen of the excellent new site, Working Man News.