SOUTH AFRICA: FOOTBALL / SOCCER - WORLD CUP 2010 - Soccer fans can smoke their very own World Cup waterpipe

Record ID: 456111

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: FOOTBALL / SOCCER - WORLD CUP 2010 - Soccer fans can smoke their very own World Cup waterpipe
  • Date: 18th June 2010
  • Summary: FAN WEILAND DU BLESSES FROM CAPE TOWN SMOKING THE WORLD-CUP-WATERPIPE, VARIOUS (SOUNDBITE) (English) WEILAND DU BLESSES SAYING: "It is very original, very, very original with the World Cup and everything. It,s great." WIDE OF THE RESTAUTANT OF UNCLE FAOUZI IN PRETORIA
  • Embargoed: 3rd July 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA78U1RX0MO524M7U4TD9KUXZOQ
  • Story Text: It is the perfect gift for fans who are watching their World Cup hopes go up in smoke - the World Cup waterpipe! The idea came from 'Uncle' Faouzi Kobeyssi, the owner of a Lebanese restaurant in Pretoria, who saw all his neighbours getting ready for the FIFA soccer tournament in South Africa, and wondered what he could do to jump on the merchandising bandwagon.
    With food being difficult to form into World Cups, the fan of traditional waterpipes, known as 'hubbly' in South Africa, thought of making a World Cup pipe to smoke his hubbly while watching the football matches.
    "From last year I was sitting here and everybody prepare himself for make something for the World Cup. I had the idea, to make the World Cup in hubbly, because everybody know, I smoke hubbly always," he said.
    Originally from Lebanon, Uncle Faouzi has lived in Hatfield, Pretoria for the last seven years. For the new pipes though, he travelled all the way to China with a Chinese friend, where he paid 300 dollars to have his design for the World Cup waterpipe made and then shipped to South Africa.
    "We start to supply, but it is my design, my idea. I take it to China, everybody know this is the idea of Uncle Faouzi," he told Reuters TV proudly, as he explained how the pipes were becoming more popular than vuvuzelas in Pretoria - they are certainly more peaceful.
    The relaxing accompaniment to a match are being sold for 350 rand (47 US dollars) at the tabacco stand in the Menlyn shopping mall, or 300 rand (40 dollars) at Uncle Faouzi's. Unlike the real World Cup, the waterpipe is not made of solid gold.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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