So, Fifa have decided to give away tickets to fill the Confederations Cup stadiums. Jolly good, I'll take six, thanks, for Sunday's game between Brazil and Italy.
I was planning on doing nothing on Father's Day, but in the circumstances I am prepared to do my bit for the cause. We South Africans are always willing to offer a hand, particularly when people are extending handouts, and we are inspired, as you know, by those nice people at Cosatu.
Wednesday's column questioned why the trade union movement had yet to give Bafana Bafana some helpful advice but now we know that they have been addressing a far bigger issue. Turns out that their Patrick Craven, like all Englishmen, a football expert, has been writing the following statement:
"The Congress of South African Trade Unions urgently calls upon South Africans to buy more tickets and attend the Confederations Cup matches in greater numbers.
"The low turnouts at some matches have been a serious embarrassment to the country and must be improved upon, if we are to demonstrate to the world our passion for soccer, and to remove any doubts about our commitment to the 2010 World Cup tournament."
If Comrade Patrick is really serious about removing any doubts concerning Cosatu's commitment to the 2010 Fifa World Cup, he might recommend to his members that they don't threaten to go on strike whenever a global event visits this country and the national cause is most exposed to blackmail.
It really does set a bad example, you know, as was witnessed earlier this week when volunteers (no less) threatened to withhold their labour for the opening show at Ellis Park unless they were better rewarded.
On such rich ironies are the new democracies built.
Despite Cosatu's advice to South Africans to buy more tickets, Fifa has simply conceded the unattractiveness of its product by announcing its ticket giveaway. In so doing, it offers more of a commentary on its product than on its prospective customers.
Yet earlier this week its boss blamed South Africa for the poor turnout at the odd venue . That's like the Indian Premier League asking us to stage their tournament and then blaming Cricket SA if ticket sales are slow - which, of course, they weren't.
This was because the IPL, and not South Africa, went on a mass marketing offensive, discounted the ticket prices and turned the whole thing into a big party.
So Fifa's Sepp Blatter really pointed his finger in the wrong direction when he declared that South Africa could have done more to improve attendances, to which the most telling response was Rich Mkhondo's "our job is to host the event - not attend it".
Mr Mkhondo is the communications guru of the 2010 local organising committee. Let's hope Herr Blatter and/or Cosatu have nothing to do with paying his salary.