South African football fan, 29 year old Thulani Ngcobo who hails from Soshanguve in Gauteng has set a brand new Guinness World Record for “the most FIFA World Cup™ matches attended by an individual”, after attending 21 full matches at the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, according to Guinness World Records.The number of matches to beat was 20 and at the end of the Chile vs Spain encounter at Loftus on Friday night, Ngcobo officially set a new record of 21 matches.
After winning the MTN8 Last Fan Standing competition in South Africa last year, with a prize to attend 38 FIFA World Cup™ matches during 2010, Ngcobo submitted a claim to Guinness World Record, which revealed that no previous claim existed. With no previous record holder in place, after an intense research phase during which researchers took into account the locations and times of the matches and calculated the humanly-possible permutations of achieving such a record, they set the number of matches to beat at 20, which they believe requires a serious and concerted effort on the contestants’ part. The Chile vs Spain match, was Ngcobo’s 28th of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, and the 21st full match towards his Guinness World Record.
According to the organisation that vets and validates global record attempts, in order for a match to be considered “attended” and to count towards Ngcobo’s record, the contestant needed to be present from the kick off (signalled by the referee's whistle) until the end of the game (signalled by the referee's whistle or when the final penalty of the shootout has been taken.
Due to Ngcobo’s tight schedule of matches during the group stage, when he attended up to two matches a day on many of the days, he either arrived after kick off or left before the final whistle during seven of the matches in order to make another match, resulting in these not counting towards his goal of 21 matches.
“I’m really proud to set this Guinness World Record as a South African and to show the world how much we love the game. This is the most amazing experience of my life, it’s unbelievable. I’m so passionate about football and even though it’s very tough and exhausting, with lots of travel and very little sleep, I’m loving every moment. I used to tell everyone that I “live, eat and sleep football”, but now I really know what that means. Ayoba MTN!”
Veli Mabena, General Manager: Brand & Communications at MTN South Africa: “We are proud of Thulani’s achievement as this has been a very challenging task. He has been the ideal ambassador for MTN - the fact that he still shows energy and commitment no matter the circumstances - his ‘can do’ attitude exemplifies our brand values.
Ngcobo had a “Witness Sheet” which had to be signed by two (2) independent witnesses at the various stadiums (spectators sitting next to him) to validate that he watched the full 90 minutes. Supporting material, such as match ticket stubs, photographs and video footage, were also required by Guinness World Record to verify the claim.
Guinness World Record adjudicator, Jason Curran, who arrived in South Africa this week to scrutinize Ngcobo’s claim, presented Ngcobo with an official Guinness World Record certificate for his efforts, after Ngcobo watched his 21st full match of the 28 matches attended so far, at the end of the Spain vs Chile encounter at Loftus.
But it didn’t all end at Loftus. With 10 more matches after the Chile vs Spain match, including a few round of Last 16,all of the Quarter finals, Semi finals and Final still on his schedule, Ngcobo will try to further the president set, by attending these matches as well in the coming weeks, aiming to ultimately set the record at 31 matches.
Guinness World Record adjudicator, Curran who sat next to Ngcobo during the Chile vs Spain match explained after he congratulated Ngcobo on his achievement: “We always encourage applicants to try to stretch themselves to set the best possible record in order to maintain their official Guinness World Record holder status for as long as possible.
So it will be great that Thulani will continue his record attempt after achieving the target set, so that he can achieve the highest number of games possible, which will then be logged as the official record in our book.”
Ngcobo, or “Ngcobo 2010” as he is commonly known, became the luckiest football fan when he entered and won the MTN8 Last Fan Standing competition in South Africa last year, with an incredible prize to attend 38 FIFA World Cup matches during 2010, travelling more than 17 000 kilometers to watch about 3420 minutes of football live. The MTN8 is a football tournament featuring the top eight teams in the South African premier league, during which tournament sponsor MTN ran the “Last Fan Standing” consumer competition for supporters during the tournament.
Ngcobo’s name was drawn as one of the weekly winners, and became one of eight finalists, who were eventually pitted against each other in a 40-question Football Trivia Quiz about the World Cup dating back to the 1930’s and the MTN8 tournament. Ngcobo came out with flying colours and was announced as the ultimate football fan.
“MTN prides itself in providing its customers with truly Ayoba experiences to ordinary South Africans and breaking the Guinness World Record is truly a prize money cannot buy. Congratulations to Thulani. Through competitions such as the MTN8 Last Fan Standing, Ayoba campaign and our 2010 World Cup activations, we are rewarding fans who have been loyal supporters and MTN customers,” concluded Mabena.
Interesting stats:
Thulani’s favourite goal of the tournament: Siphiwe Tshabalala's goal at the opening game vs Mexico.
Best moment: Opening ceremony at Soccer City.
Best game: Portugal vs Korea (7-0) and also enjoy Argentina's games.
Kilometers travelled by car: over 7500 km
Kilometers travelled by air (flights): over 7000 km
Hours of sleep: Thulani has only slept a total of about 65 hours in the last 14 days
Minutes of football watched: 2165 minutes of football
Average number of media interviews per day: 9 interviews a day
Thulani’s journey can be followed at http://www.lastfanstanding.co.za/ or via Twitter at www.twitter.com/ngcobo2010
