My regular barber, Kwesi, is a very amiable, football-mad chap from Ghana. He is keeping his fingers crossed that when the World Cup draw is conducted on December 4 his beloved Black Stars will be in a group scheduled to play in Cape Town where he is based.

During my last visit to Kwesi's barbershop last Sunday we ran the rule over Ghana's key players. He waxed lyrical about 'The Bison', Michael Essien, but the most effusive reverence was reserved for Stephen Appiah. "Appiah is my captain," he said. "Even Essien calls him 'my captain'. Stephen is our most important player."

Jetting in: some African football fans will face a four-day trek to follow their team on their own continent

Kwesi still harbours a strong sense of aggrievement at the manner of Ghana's elimination from the 2006 World Cup and even hinted at a conspiracy against African teams.

"Adriano's goal should not have been allowed. He was clearly offside. But there is no reason to worry about such decisions in 2010 because we'll be playing at home on African soil," he said.

For the duration of the World Cup geographical boundaries will be smudged, turning Africa into one huge 'country' of desert, vast swathes of savannah, equatorial rain forests, highways, pot-holed roads, colossal skyscrapers, extravagant mansions and thatched huts.

Different sources put the number of African immigrants in South Africa between three and five million. The majority of these are economic refugees, some legal, others not. Many more are asylum seekers with refugee status, while there is also a significant tinge of skilled professionals. So there is already a sizeable 'African Diaspora' in South Africa, which should ensure strong support for visiting African teams.

Although the World Cup will be held in South Africa, it has been widely promoted as 'Africa's World Cup'. There is no doubt that the illusion of home advantage will give African teams and their supporters a psychological lift. But is it really Africa's World Cup?

How much of a home advantage is it for the travelling supporters of the other five African teams - Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria - when for the privilege of watching their team on 'home' soil they will be required to travel from Africa to Europe first, and in some cases to the USA, before flying back to Africa (South Africa). For some African fans it may take them up to four days to travel by air from their country to South Africa, with long layover hours on other continents.

Distance

Consider this. At Europe's last World Cup in 2006, the shortest 'theoretical' distance travelled by a European team (Czech Republic) to get to Germany was 175 miles. Portugal travelled the longest distance (2310 kilometres/1435 miles). For as little as 50 Euros, you can fly from Prague to Berlin in about 20 minutes.

Compare this with 'Africa's World Cup'. Of the five African teams to qualify for 2010, Cameroon is the nearest to South Africa in terms of physical distance. Timeanddate.com gives the great-circle distance (shortest distance between two points) between the capital of Cameroon, Yaounde, and that of South Africa, Pretoria, as 3733 kilometres (2320 miles). The Algerian capital of Algiers, an orthodromic distance of 7388 (4591 miles) from Pretoria, is the farthest.

Whilst there would have been direct flights to Germany for most of the European fans travelling to the 2006 World Cup, the situation may be different for African fans travelling to South Africa. Some of them may have to traverse two or three continents to get to their World Cup.

My search on farecompare.com earlier this week returned some very interesting results. An economy class seat on Air France from Yaounde to Johannesburg, one way, for 4,383.51 euro was the cheapest available flight departing from Cameroon to South Africa on November 30, 2009.

The flight departs Nsimalen on Monday and arrives at Charles De Gaulle (France) on Tuesday, December 1. It is a six-hour flight with a 2hour 15-minute layover before flying from Paris to New York. After a long layover of 23hours 55 minutes, passengers then catch a connecting flight from JFK International to Johannesburg, with a flying time of 15hours 5minutes, arriving in South Africa on December 3.

The cheapest seat for a flight from Algeria to South Africa also leaving on November 30 costs 652.70 Euro, one way. The flight leaves Africa (Algiers) at 7:35 am and arrives in Europe (Paris) two and half hours later. After a layover of 5hours and 5minutes, the passenger flies back to Africa, (Cairo, Egypt) for four and half hours, before catching a connecting 8 hour 15-minute flight to Johannesburg after a 3hour 15-minute layover.

Still think it's Africa' World Cup?

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