Joburg is a fast-paced, business-focused city, but for the many football players and fans there is always time for a game.

JOBURG is football crazy: it is the footballing capital of the country.

It is the home city of several of the country's most popular professional teams and there's no shortage of enthusiastic amateurs with dusty township fields and green suburban parks always crowded with players.

It's home to four of South Africa's top clubs - Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates, Bidvest Wits and Moroka Swallows.

Every weekend there is a game somewhere – be it a top-class derby or a hotly contested neighbourhood clash – with fans downing a few beers and braaing (the Afrikaans word for barbecue) some chicken on the sidelines.

While Joburg is home to the major stadiums – the 2010 FIFA World Cup will be held at Soccer City in Nasrec and one of the semi-finals takes place at Ellis Park Stadium; it also has loads of local club grounds and informal pitches in local parks.

Around Soweto people are so passionate about the game they even share the field. It's not unusual to find six teams sharing a single pitch by dividing the space up into several playing areas, because everyone wants to be part of the game.

Driving around the expanse of Joburg visitors can see well-organised games on the outskirts of an informal settlement – with teams in their bright-coloured kit and an official looking referee. Elsewhere youngsters set up an ad hoc whatever-a-side game until its time for supper.

Friends for life
And, it's easy to make friends via football. Show a little knowledge of local football and you'll be surrounded by friends for life.

The lingo is easy: Pirates are known as the Buccaneers or Bucs, Chiefs are the Amakhosi which means 'chiefs' in isiZulu, and Swallows are known as the Birds. Newspaper headlines make the most of these and after a weekend clash it is not uncommon to see posters proclaiming 'Birds fly high', 'Bucs find treasure' or 'Chiefs claim scalp'.

On big match days, especially between the Soweto giants Amakhosi and Bucs, streets take on the team colours as fans don self-designed outfits. It's obvious when there's a big game on the go. Their rivalry matches that of Real Madrid/Barcelona or Arsenal/Chelsea.

Knowing the colours helps. The Buccaneers are, of course, black and white. Skulls and cross-bones feature prominently in the outfits of their ardent supporters. Chiefs' colours are yellow and black, with a warrior in Native American feathers as their emblem. The Birds (Swallows) appear in maroon and white and the bumpers of their supporters' cars often feature a bumper sticker that reads "Don't follow me, follow the Birds".

Bidvest Wits, who wear blue and yellow, originated at Joburg's University of the Witwatersrand so they are known as the "Clever Boys".

Fans attending the matches try to outdo one another's outrageous outfits – large glasses, modified hardhats with intricate cut-out shapes, and, of course, the ubiquitous vuvuzela in the appropriate colour.

The vuvuzela is an instrument that every football supporter should become familiar with. It's a long trumpet shaped plastic tube that is blown with great gusto throughout any match. The ensuing blaaaaah sound reverberates around the stadium, adding to heady sounds that carry to neighbourhoods beyond the stadiums.

Accompanying the vuvuzelas are a range of intricate whistles and hoots –indicating displeasure or encouragement.

The local squads fan-base – like the big-name teams around the world – is spread much further than the city's boundaries. On derby-days supporters arrive from as far a field as KwaZulu-Natal, determined to be part of the sideline action.

Matches are usually televised and fans unable to get to the grounds meet in each others homes, making a social occasion out of the event.

Local watering holes do great business on match days – provided they have a television on the right channel. Elsewhere, the game is shown on large public screens like the one in the centre of Jozi at Mary Fitzgerald Square. There, celebrations can last for hours.

And on Monday mornings in taxis, buses and trains the weekend games are hotly debated – and often replayed verbally.