ESPN is reporting that South Africa’s World Cup organizing chief Danny Jordaan said Sunday there is a chance vuvuzelas may be banned from inside stadiums after numerous complaints. Asked whether he’d consider getting rid of the trumpets, he said: “If there are grounds to do so, yes. We did say that if any land on the pitch in anger we will take action.”
“We’ve tried to get some order,” Jordaan said. “We have asked for no vuvuzelas during national anthems or stadium announcements. It’s difficult, but we’re trying to manage the best we can.”
Jordaan said organizers are doing everything possible.
The first-round contests introduced most of the world to the vuvuzela, a plastic trumpet carried into the matches and blown on incessantly by thousands of fans. On television, it sounds as if the game is being played before a nest of angry bees.
It’s louder at the games than it is on the telecast. ESPN is altering the sound mix on its broadcasts to minimize the crowd noise, network spokesman Bill Hofheimer said. The network has accepted it as part of the atmosphere and has made no complaints about the vuvuzelas, he said.
France captain Patrice Evra has already blamed the noise generated by the vuvuzelas for his team’s poor showing in its opening 0-0 draw with Uruguay.
“We can’t sleep at night because of the vuvuzelas,” Evra said. “People start playing them from 6 a.m. We can’t hear one another out on the pitch because of them.”
