Monday, June 28, 2010

  Most World Cup matches attended - Thulani Ngcobo sets world record

 PRETORIA, South Africa -- South African football fan Thulani Ngcobo , 29, an asset controller with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, attended 21 full matches at the 2010 World Cup - setting the new world record for the Most World Cup matches attended by an individual .  

 Photo: Lungani Ngcobo, The winner of the "Last Man standing" competition. Photo by Luigi Bennett / Backpagepix ( enlarge photo )

    Staunch Kaizer Chiefs supporter and football enthusiast Thulani Ngcobo has been attending up to two matches a day.

    His wide knowledge of football won him the big prize of an all-expenses-paid trip around the country and 38 World Cup matches.

     "Ngcobo 2010" as he is commonly known, entered and won the MTN8 Last Fan Standing competition in South Africa last year, winning a prize to attend 38 World Cup matches during 2010, and travelling more than 17,000 kilometres.   

    Ngcobo, who normally watched an average of three soccer matches a week on a monthly budget of R2 000, including travelling, said the award was a "dream come true".

The previous Guinness world record for the Most World Cup matches attended by an individual was 20.    

    In cases where Ngcobo arrived at a match late (after the start whistle) or left early (before the final whistle) in order to get to another match, those matches do not count towards his World Record attempt.

    He was only required to watch 21 full World Cup matches to break the former record of 20, but now his ultimate aim is to have watched 38 matches by the time the last whistle is blown after the finals on Sunday July 11.

    Follow him at www.lastfanstanding.co.za and/or                            twitter.com/Ngcobo2010

    Out of the 38 matches, 31 would be full matches while the other seven would be half-watched as he would have had to leave for another match starting in another city.

    In the end he would have covered 17 000km by road and air, watched over 3 400 minutes of live football and been to all nine host cities and 10 stadiums around the country.

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