Sam Wallace: Fifa can organise one hell of a party but a World Cup in Africa is not so easy

The Fifa World Player of the Year gala in Zurich today will look like a Jay Gatsby house party in overdrive.

The famous men who play football will clink glasses with the less-famous but no-less-ambitious men who run football. Everyone jostling to share a word with Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. More false bonhomie than the photocall last week with Barack Obama and the four surviving US presidents. Attending these Fifa love-ins – naturally from the other side of the rope that divides the VIPs from the plebs – is a surreal experience. Getting to the draw hall for the 2006 World Cup in Leipzig involved walking through a room that was Fifa president Sepp Blatter's personal Valhalla: sponsors, administrators, flunkeys, gallons of champagne. Even in these difficult times, Fifa's party just refuses to end.

Everyone in Zurich will be far too delighted with their own success to point out that the World Player award is another case of Fifa inventing a spurious concept that allows it to bask in the reflected glory of the world's most famous footballers. The European footballer of the year is a perfectly adequate award, its only disadvantage, in Fifa's eyes, is that it is not controlled by Fifa. It is the "World" part of World Player of the Year that is misleading – it has never been given to a footballer playing outside of Europe. Fifa did not even nominate anyone from Ecuador's Liga de Quito, who came second in its very own Club World Cup.

No matter, it will look fantastic on the television. The message will be clear. There are no other organisations that can summon Ronaldo, Messi, Fernando Torres, Kaka and Xavi Hernandez in the middle of the season to sit in a room on the off-chance that they might win an award. But Fifa can. It is the organisation that transcends national governments, that can bring anyone in the game into line simply by excluding them from the great, raucous banquet that is modern football.

So what is the connection with Jimmy Mohlala, a 44-year-old man shot dead in South Africa last Monday, with today's big Swiss knees-up? Mohlala's death was reported last week because he was identified, wrongly it turned out, as a member of South Africa's 2010 World Cup finals organising committee. That was Reuben Mahlalela, who died in the same city, Nelspruit, in the same week. But Mohlala also had a connection to Fifa's 2010 jamboree, although not one anyone would like to mention in Zurich today.

Mohlala, a council official, was a whistle-blower over corruption related to contracts to build the Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit. The Mbombela stadium is one of the 10 venues for the 2010 tournament and the costs of building it are estimated at R1bn (£67m). There is no certainty that Mohlala's murder was because of his intervention in the stadium project but the local police say that they are not ruling it out. Either way, his murder feels like a long way from the speeches and awards in Zurich.

Fifa's 2010 World Cup is the big one. It is an international tournament in the world's poorest continent, with 200,000 new policemen recruited and huge infrastructure projects. Fifa has unleashed large amounts of money into the South African economy which – if that is what Mohlala is – will also claim victims. Getting Ronaldo and Messi in the same room will be a doddle compared to staging a World Cup finals in a developing nation.

The 2010 organisers do not directly manage the stadium-building, that is done by the provincial governments in South Africa whose cities have won the contracts. Therefore Mohlala's death is one step removed from the 2010 organisers. "He [Mohlala] was a local municipal councillor," a 2010 spokesman told me last week. "While we condemn his murder, it's not really something that is linked to us."

Will South Africa be safe for 2010? They are understandably anxious and spending R1.3bn on security. When the qualifying round draw was made in November 2007, those of us reporting it were encouraged not to leave our hotel in Durban unaccompanied. That same week, Peter Burgstaller, a former professional footballer from Austria, was shot dead while playing golf. The 2010 organisers distanced themselves by pointing out that he was not an official delegate, although he was there on football business.

This is new territory for Fifa. It can spin the truth when it comes to the political infighting that routinely grips the organisation. It can breathlessly dish out its meaningless awards at glitzy ceremonies and debate whether Ronaldo or Messi is the better player. But when it comes to the 2010 World Cup, it all turns a bit more serious. There, dissembling will cost lives. We need to know whether the country where these two men were murdered really is safe to hold the biggest sporting occasion on earth. The trouble is, when you look around the people in Zurich today, would you trust them to tell you the truth?

Pompey fans quick to write off real worth of Redknapp

A quick history lesson for those dumb Portsmouth fans outraged at Harry Redknapp for signing Jermain Defoe.

It was Redknapp, as Pompey manager, who signed Defoe, a player the club sold last week for roughly £8m more than they bought him for and had debts to Spurs on Younes Kaboul and Pedro Mendes written off into the bargain. Redknapp also bought Lassana Diarra (Pompey profit: £15m), Sulley Muntari (profit: £4m) and Mendes (profit: £500,000). He signed Glen Johnson, Peter Crouch, Nico Kranjcar, Sylvain Distin and Kaboul – all very saleable assets.

Oh yeah, he also won the FA Cup with Pompey, their first top-flight trophy in 58 years. Pompey may have a struggling team, a rookie manager and an owner who wants to sell. But at least they have a good ex-manager.

Agent's fee remains a bridge too far in Chelsea's cost-cutting offensive

Good to see that Chelsea are on track to break even by 2010. No new signings in January – check. Sacked a lot of scouts – check. Players' ticket allocations cut from eight to four for match days – check. £900,000 paid to agent Pini Zahavi for his part in the Wayne Bridge transfer – hmm, sounds a bit pricey. Given that Bridge (left) wanted to leave, Chelsea wanted to sell and Manchester City were prepared to pay £13.5m, can someone point out why Zahavi was required?

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