The main reason, of course, is South Africa’s World Cup.

 

But the continent may also have a big say in determining the winners of the hard-fought battle for the right to stage the World Cups of 2018 and 2022 – a contest that culminates in December next year.

 

For one thing, four of the 24-member FIFA Executive Committee - the men whose votes will decide the outcome - are Africans, and with no African candidate in either race, these votes are very much up for grabs.

 

Furthermore, with Lord Coe having taken a leave of absence as chairman of FIFA’s Ethics Committee, Africa also looks set to provide one of the main referees for what could become a fraught process.

 

FIFA recently confirmed to me that Petrus Damaseb, officially Coe’s deputy, is now acting chairman of the committee.

 

Though the governing body said there was “currently no indication” of how long Damaseb would fulfil this role, the likelihood must be that he will retain it for the contest’s duration.

 

As Judge President of the Namibian High Court, the 46-year-old Damaseb looks suitably well qualified.

 

A resumé on the court’s website notes that he read law at England’s Warwick university and briefly joined Lincoln’s Inn, one of London’s prestigious Inns of Court, before returning to his homeland to “participate in Namibia’s independence elections”.

 

He then served as a senior Government official.

 

The 14-strong committee he will head, incidentally, looks particularly diverse, including members from Uruguay, Guam and Papua New Guinea.

 

Dominique Rocheteau, whom I remember as a mop-haired French winger in the 1970s and 1980s, also sits on it.

 

As stipulated in FIFA’s statutes, the committee is one of FIFA’s three judicial bodies

 

These bodies are said to pass their decisions “entirely independently”.

 

Judicial committee members may belong neither to FIFA’s ruling executive committee, nor any standing committees.

 

No member of another FIFA body may so much as stay in the room during the judicial bodies’ deliberations, “unless they have explicitly summoned him to attend”.

 

I must say though, having perused FIFA’s Code of Ethics, which came into force less than three years ago, that it seems to my eye awfully understanding on one or two points.

 

For example, under Article 11, officials are not allowed to accept gifts and other benefits “that exceed the average relative value of local cultural customs”.

 

And under Article 7, individuals with criminal records are not eligible to serve as officials “if the offence is incompatible with their ability to fulfil their task”.

 

The language outlawing bribes (Article 12) looks comparatively robust, though, with officials banned both from accepting them and from bribing others “or from urging or inciting others to do so”.

 

Meanwhile, the latest I hear from England’s bid is that some pruning of the board, swollen by the recent additions of Lord Coe and Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards, may be in prospect.

 

● Anyone who can secure a six-fold increase in a TV deal in the current climate is doing something right.

 

So the International Olympic Committee must be feeling pretty pleased about last week’s $100 million (£69 million) agreement with CCTV, the state broadcaster, for Chinese rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympics.

 

With the sales process nearly complete, this brings to around $3.8 billion (£2.6 billion) the total raised from broadcasting rights for the 2010 and 2012 Games – up from $2.57 billion (£1.7 billion) for 2006 and 2008.

 

This money should help cushion the impact of the recession on the Olympic Movement – provided, of course, that broadcasting partners don’t start to fall by the wayside.

 

This, though, is only the start as far as getting the world’s most populous nation to pay a reasonable price for its Olympic coverage is concerned.

 

As I pointed out last year, the Chinese broadcasting rights for 2006-08 went for an absolute song at probably less than 1.5 US cents per head of population.

 

Even the new deal doesn’t lift the cost to much more than 7 cents a head.

 

● It is a matter of great regret that the Olympic torch relay will, from now on, be a purely domestic event.

 

Yes, a repeat of last year’s overblown odyssey that blew up in the Movement’s faces would have been unthinkable.

 

But by jettisoning the international dimension altogether, the IOC’s Executive Board has chosen to dilute the event’s powerful symbolism, which highlighted with elegant simplicity the umbilical link between the Games of today and Ancient Olympic values.

 

The right decision would have been to insist that the torch travel from Olympia to the host country on foot where possible and using the most direct route feasible.

 

But, of course, as the IOC’s Gilbert Felli observed in what struck me as a revealing phrase, “When the torch relay is inside the country there is more control”.

 

If the torch has become a target for those demonstrating against repressive Governments, it is right and proper that the Movement should be asking itself some searching questions - and Copenhagen later this year would provide a perfect forum for doing so.

 

This, I’m afraid, is the easy way out.

 

● Last week’s commercial launch of the Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car, brought to mind an irresistible idea: could this be the elusive vehicle supplier for London 2012?

 

A tie-up would, I feel, benefit both sides, doing wonders for the little car’s prestige while helping to keep the feet of countless masters of the sporting universe planted firmly on the ground.

 

It would even help the Movement to make headway in India, still something of an underexploited market.

 

No, I don’t suppose it will ever happen - although Tata’s empire does, these days, include Jaguar and Land Rover, marques that Olympic bosses might feel were more in keeping with their status.

 

David Owen is a specialist sports journalist who worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering last year's Beijing Olympics