JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- As South Africa gears up to host next year's soccer World Cup, plenty of doomsayers are predicting the worst. If transportation shortages don't ruin the event, crime will. The beer will run out. Or the stadiums will be half empty.

But no one expected an ugly plastic trumpet to dominate the controversy.

Hatred of the "vuvuzela," the noisemaker wielded by South African soccer fans, ignited the blogosphere even before the FIFA Confederations Cup, the country's dry run for 2010, which ended yesterday when the U.S. national team lost to powerful Brazil, 3-2 (see story in Sports, Page D-1), after squandering a 2-0 halftime lead.

During the current tournament, foreign players, coaches and journalists have called for a ban on the vuvuzela. There is debate about whether it's a unique part of South African culture and therefore untouchable, or just a cheap plastic import that makes a lot of noise, like an electric air horn or a whistle.

One vuvuzela -- a loud, tuneless blast -- sounds something like a foghorn. But a stadium full of vuvuzelas, all tooting simultaneously, is either the most exhilarating sound or a noise so irritating it borders on painful, depending on the listener.

It has been compared to a deafening swarm of wasps. Or a herd of flatulent elephants.

The vuvuzela ranges from about 2 to 3 feet. The longer it is, the harder it is to blow.

Video clips of groups playing the vuvuzela like a melodic instrument can be found on YouTube. But a more accurate sound clip is found at www.boogieblast.co.za, which claims to be the trumpet's original distributor.

Boogieblast's sales pitch: "Remember ... you only hate them if you don't have one."

Mike Greenburg from the ESPN radio sports show "Mike and Mike" is one of the vuvuzela's loudest detractors. He said the sound at a recent match was "excruciating."

"It never ends," Mr. Greenburg said on the air. "And it is like you are being attacked by a swarm of locusts for 90 consecutive minutes."

"I know what you're talking about," said co-host Mike Golic. "How can they constantly do that?"

Spanish soccer player Xabi Alonso called for a ban of vuvuzelas at the 2010 World Cup, according to South African newspaper The Times. So did Dutch coach Bert Van Marwijk, Reuters reported.

Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, head of FIFA, the international football association that runs the World Cup, said recently there were no plans to ban the trumpet during the 2010 games.

A sports journalist with South Africa's Times, Bareng-Batho Kortjaas, said critics of the vuvuzela should watch the matches on television.

"The irony of it all is that most of those denouncing the vuvuzela's democratic right to be blown are part-time football fans who, under normal circumstances, avoid setting foot anywhere near a soccer match because it is too 'dangerous,' " he wrote recently.

Local soccer in South Africa is perceived largely as a "black" game, attracting mainly black supporters, while rugby crowds are overwhelmingly white.

Philip Kalinko, manager of Perkalgifts, a vuvuzela distributor in Johannesburg, said South Africans have been disagreeing for years about the noisemaker.

"For everyone who loves it, there's another person who says it should be banned," he said. "I sit there and watch the football on TV and I don't even hear the vuvuzelas. My wife sits next to me and she can't bear to listen to the sound of the vuvuzelas."