June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Sports remain a question of color in South Africa, a year before the country hosts the soccer World Cup.

Soccer is the game of the black majority, with cricket and rugby favored by whites, who make up about 9 percent of the country’s 40 million inhabitants. The government and sports officials are trying to broaden that support to help the national team and fill seats in the stadiums.

The division has become a talking point as the country hosts FIFA’s Confederations Cup this month in a warmup for one of the world’s biggest athletic events, the 2010 World Cup. Even with advertising and the attraction of teams including five-time champions Brazil and title holders Italy, only pockets of white supporters came to the 62,000-seat Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg for South Africa’s opening match June 14.

“It’s so surprising to see white people here that you think ‘Wow!’” said fan Benjamin Seitlhamo, 27, wearing his team’s green and yellow colors. “Are you going to see the same support after the World Cup or is it going to disappear?”

South Africa, which elected its first multiracial government in 1994, is reaching out to all parts of society to get people behind the tournaments. On the road leading to the Ellis Park stadium, a billboard sponsored by BP Plc has the slogan, ‘World Cup 2010, there’s a nation united.’ An elderly white man and a black woman kick a soccer ball in the foreground.

South Africa Rugby

The scenes on the field mirror those in the stands. The reigning world champion South African rugby team is heavily populated by white, Afrikaans-speaking players. Bafana Bafana, as the national soccer squad is locally known, is the opposite. It has one white starter and two reserves on its roster for tonight’s Confederations Cup semifinal match with Brazil at Ellis Park.

“When I went to school they only taught us rugby, never soccer,” Valentin Van Vuuren, a 34-year-old mechanic said in an interview near the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein before South Africa’s 2-0 loss to European champion Spain on June 20.

Hours earlier the Springboks beat the British and Irish Lions in the first rugby Test in front of a mainly white crowd at the ABSA Stadium in Durban, 628 miles southeast of Bloemfontein.

Divisions

“It’s a racial issue,” said Kenny Diboke, 29, who travels around the country to watch the South African national team. “If Bafana Bafana lose the whites will say, ‘You guys have lost.’ If the rugby team loses we tell them ‘You guys have lost.’”

Such divisions even existed among the South African national team, reserve goalkeeper Rowen Fernandez said in an interview after South Africa clinched its semifinal berth.

“A few years ago, you would get a little bit of separation,” he said. “But as years go by people adjust and move on with the times and then people don’t see skin color anymore. They see the person. You’re a colleague of mine, a teammate of mine, so we work together.”

Teammate Matthew Booth had to reporters he wasn’t being jeered by the crowd that chanted “BOO--OOTH” every time he touched the ball.

“It’s been a bit embarrassing because a lot of the foreign journalists have thought that it’s racist abuse,” Booth, who’s white, said in an interview. “But it’s never the case I’ve been treated as the guest of honor.”

In the Premier Soccer League, the country’s domestic competition, the sight of white faces in the stands is even rarer than for those involving the national team.

Last month, 60,000 fans came to Ellis Park to watch the country’s two most popular teams, the Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. Tickets cost 20 rand ($2.49), 70 percent less than the cheapest available for the Confederations Cup.

“The way blacks are used to going to stadiums culturewise might even be scary for a white person,” said league Chief Executive Officer Kjetil Siem, who comes from Norway. “It’s dancing...you don’t care if you sit in the seat you’re supposed to -- It’s another atmosphere. I like it.”

Stadium Neighborhoods

Kerry Holmes, 35, attending the opening game with her son Joseph, said some of the stadiums are “not in the best places.” Ellis Park is in downtown Johannesburg, an area with some of the city’s highest crime rates. “People have been badly ripped off,” said Holmes. The most popular rugby stadiums like Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld are in safer areas.

At the Confederations Cup, FIFA, soccer’s governing body, has created a perimeter around the stadiums, limiting access to people with tickets and allowing only licensed vendors to sell merchandise and food. Fans attending the games say it’s made a difference.

‘One Nation’

In the concourse, Mzion Mofokeng, 59, deputy chairman of the South African Football supporters Association, was outfitted in team colors and emblems. He said the national squad, ranked 72nd by FIFA, will need the entire nation behind it if it’s not to become the first host nation to fall at the opening stage of the World Cup next summer.

“The only thing that can help them is us coming in big numbers,” said Mofokeng, making a wide circle with his hands. “We are one nation. Let’s support the team and come together. You get nothing when you are divided.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Tariq Panja in Johannesburg via the London newsroom on tpanja@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 25, 2009 07:35 EDT