That annoying sound you hear...

...is the whining of soccer traditionalists about the vuvuzelas--the plastic horns that you hear as an incessant background noise at the World Cup. Patrice Evra, captain of the French National Team (who between the rancor of strife in the French camp and the noise of prostitutes coming and going should be used to odd noises) has been particularly vocal in leading the charge to ban the South African soundmakers.

A telling perspective in the ESPN article above is John Leicester, an international AP reporter, who says the horns are "killing the atmosphere" and he is reported as complaining that the sound "is drowning out the oohs, aahs and cheers that lend excitement to the matches."

I will be the first to admit that the tinny, warbling noise does not seem a lovely soundtrack for the Beautiful Game. But I think to say it is "killing the atmosphere" suggests there is a singular, consistent atmosphere to international soccer games, when certainly that isn't the case.

The cacophonous chants of British (and many European teams) echo across the stadia. When I've seen the English National team play in the old Wembley and at Soldier Field, the sound was deafening and certainly impacted the players' ability to communicate on the pitch.

The "Samba" music at Brazilian games (and some other Central American and South American nations) results in a consistent musical backdrop that ebbs and flows with the game but which runs throughout the match.

This is the first World Cup played on the African continent. And in the same way that Cameroon infuriated some Europeans in 1990 by having the temerity to play aggressively against them, I think the problem isn't that the Africans are ruining the atmosphere of the games; I think it is that they are not simply embracing and reproducing the conventions of traditional European and South American soccer culture.

Though there is certainly debate on the origins of the horn (since all I can read is English language analysis, it is possible there is less debate than there appears), the vuvuzela is said to be a traditional part of South African culture, and it is undeniably a longstanding part of South African soccer culture. One cannot find a single historical account or piece of match footage including South African teams that does not include the backdrop of the vuvuzelas.

So Patrice Evra and his ilk would seem to want the South African fans to stop what they've been doing for years at soccer matches lest it offend the ears of the traditional powers. If FIFA kowtows to these traditionalists, it sets an awful precedent of trying to squash unique atmospheres and local footballing cultures in order to create a uniform product. Such a decision would fly in the face of the values FIFA claims it supports.