NY Coed Soccer

South Africa Urges World Cup Fans To Stay In Safari Lodges

Fans travelling to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa are to be encouraged to stay at game lodges and combine safari holidays with attending matches, the country's minister of tourism said yesterday. In an attempt to ensure the safety and security of the 1.3m expected for the tournament, the government in Pretoria is also recruiting 5,000 railway police to combat high levels of crime. And Marthinus van Schalkwyk, minister of environment affairs and tourism, dismissed speculation that South Africa is ill-prepared:  South Africa 2010

Bill For WC 2010 Balloons...

South Africa's projected bill for hosting the 2010 World Cup has ballooned to more than 12 billion rand ($1.59 billion). Figures released by the organising committee on Wednesday put the cost of stadiums at 8.3 billion rand ($1.1 billion), transport at 3.7 billion rand ($486 million) and broadcasting at 400 million rand ($52.5 million). When South Africa won the bid in 2004 to become the first African hosts of the tournament, estimates put the total cost at 2.3 billion rand. The committee denied underestimating the costs, saying plans had changed because new soccer stadiums are being built rather than using existing rugby grounds as planned.

"There has been no increase in the costs of stadiums (but) we (will) have built five new stadiums specifically for football," chief executive Danny Jordaan told a news conference. Construction work on the new stadiums in Cape Town, Durban, Nelspruit, Polokwane and Port Elizabeth begins in January and will be completed inside 34 months. There has been widespread criticism of increasing World Cup costs, along with questions over what will happen to the new stadiums when the tournament ends. In Cape Town and Durban, 70,000-seater stadiums are planned.

South Africa's national league struggles to fill small venues, sparking worries the new bigger stadiums could become expensive white elephants. Jordaan dismissed media reports that organisers were behind schedule.

"This is a clear misconception," he said. "They (the media) say we are unprofessional, that we don't keep time, because it's in Africa they say it's a crisis."

But fears the country's high crime-rate could deter visitors were acknowledged.

"Crime is a South African thing. We shouldn't wait until 2010 to deal with this matter," Jordaan said.

FIFA Confident About 2010

Despite the various rumours and concerns being thrown around, FIFA "has no doubt whatsoever" that the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa will be the best in the history of the tournament:  SA 2010

FIFA's Plan To Fill Seats

Poor people in South Africa will receive free or very cheap tickets to World Cup matches when the tournament is held there in 2010. FIFA, football's world governing body, is drawing up plans to ensure that ordinary people can experience at first hand an event that many could otherwise not afford to attend:  South Africa 2010

FIFA Express Doubts on SA 2010

As we have been reporting [click on South Africa 2010 at the base of this posting] doubts are increasing over South Africa's suitability to host the 2010 World Cup.

Today's Guardian reports that FIFA top dogs have voiced "serious doubts" over 2010 and "have discussed a radical contingency plan that would see the United States stage the tournament."

According to the German sports news agency SID, FIFA officials have privately raised worries over South Africa's continuing failure to prepare for the tournament and have also discussed the possibility of staging the tournament again in Germany.

FIFA's 24-member executive committee gathered in Berlin over the weekend and spent much time discussing what to do if South Africa fell further behind with its World Cup preparations.

There are long-standing doubts about whether stadiums can be built and modernised in time but there are even more serious concerns about South Africa's transport infrastructure and whether it will be able to cope with the tens of thousands of fans travelling between venues.

Yesterday FIFA insisted that the tournament would go ahead in South Africa as planned. "The World Cup in Germany was wonderful. But the next one will take place in South Africa," its spokesman Markus Siegler insisted.

FIFA officials have indicated that no final decision is likely to be taken until after the president Sepp Blatter stands for re-election next May. Blatter, a big supporter of South Africa's ultimately successful bid, needs the votes from African delegates to ensure his re-election in the ballot next year in Zurich.
Of course, we should have known Blatter would be central in all of this. He is, after all, FIFA President. A presidency that was secured last time round by gathering the African votes with the promise of bringing the tournament to the continent for the first time.

It will be heartbreaking for South Africa to lose out in 2010, especially after the scenes that greeted its award. Blatter and FIFA should have ensured the country was able to deliver the necessary stadiums and infrastructure. But it was all about Blatter. And we're sure it'll be the same up until he received enough votes to continue with his presidency...

Website Warns Against South Africa 2010

As we've reported before [click on South Africa 2010 at the base of this posting], there are murmurings of doubts as to whether South Africa is able to host the World Cup 2010.

Of course, much of it can be blamed on spiteful and jealous individuals with interests elsewhere but the organisers must be getting concerned at the adverse publicity. And now, a further public relations headache.

As The Guardian reports, a new website has emerged warning off tourists because of the country's high levels of violent crime...

"The website, Crimeexposouthafrica.co.za, urges South Africans to post comments, stories and unedited images of violent crimes in a bid to pressurise the country's government to tackle crime.

"A decline in international tourists (including Soccer 2010 tourists) will serve as a warning to the South African leadership to clean up their act," said Neil Watson, an insurance broker from Cape Town who is the founder and national coordinator of the website.

The aim of the site is to provide a "preview of death and violence in South Africa" to get the government to "clean up their act and address the 20,000 annual murder statistics".

Access to the site is intermittent, and Watson claims that outside parties have been trying to shut it down.

He believes that South Africa should never have been chosen to host the next World Cup because of its crime statistics.

He said that football's governing body Fifa would be "held responsible for every tourist that is murdered in South Africa during the 2010 tournament".

Watson is also demanding an explanation from Fifa why the crime statistics were "ignored" in the selection process for the country to hold the 2010 World Cup.

The site is reportedly being promoted through adverts in 69 countries.

In the statement on the website, Watson said the first of 289 files containing gruesome details about murdered South Africans that have been sent to the site will be uploaded within 10 days.

He aims to register the web domain name as an international brand in an attempt to promote his campaign."

South Africa Test Attitudes Prior to WC 2010

South Africans, by and large, do not believe in the principle of reserved seating at soccer matches. And they are not too happy either having to pay anything but a minimal amount for admission.

These are two facets among a not inconsiderable number to which local soccer fans will need to conform to widely-accepted international standards before the hosting the 2010 World Cup.

And, with this in mind, the organisers of the series of friendly matches involving Manchester United, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates next month - which are masquerading under the banner of the Vodacom Challenge tournament - will provide some early, but revealing pointers.

Tickets for the four games at the King's Park Rugby Stadium in Durban (Saturday, July 15), Newlands Stadium in Cape Town (Tuesday, July 18), the Royal Bafokeng Palace in Rustenburg (Thursday, July 20) and the final fixture at Loftus in Pretoria (Saturday, July 22) are already on sale.

And although a good deal cheaper than admission promises to be at the World Cup in 2010, the prices are considerably higher than South Africans are accustomed to forking out for soccer matches.

Prices will vary from R55 to R350 ($7.50 - $49) for the series of four games in which United are bizarrely assured of a place in the so-called final - even if they are the least successful of the three competing teams after three matches.

And organisers Sail have also announced the introduction of a "reserved seating only" policy at all four games, with the series forming an early platform for the introduction of various other safety and security measures that will be mandatory at the World Cup in 2010.

The success or otherwise of these innovations will undoubtedly be examined with microscopic intensity by the 2010 Word Cup Organising Committee.

World Cup 2010 In Trouble?

Amid growing concern about South Africa's readiness to host the World Cup in 2010, Joe Phaahla, the government's head on local organising committee, moved this week to reassure critics that plans were on track.

He said preparations for hosting the tournament had begun, the 10 stadiums to host matches had been selected and the government had made financial resources available to host the world's biggest football extravaganza.

"Issues of safety and accountability of event organisers need to be tightened to ensure maximum safety in such public events, and to ensure that the 2010 World Cup becomes a successful event," Phaahla said.

According to Phaahla, FIFA accepted the following venues on recommendation of the local organising committee: FNB Soccer City, Ellis Park (Johannesburg), Loftus Versfeld (Pretoria), Polokwane, Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein and Royal Bafokeng in Rustenburg, with new stadiums to be constructed in Ethekwini, Mbomela, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.

But progress appears to be slow. Tony Leon, the Democratic Alliance leader, said on Friday that an example of this sluggishness was parliament's failure to pass legislation enabling South Africa to conform to Fifa's requirements for the tournament. The first and second 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa Special Measures were meant to be passed by the end of last year.

"When parliament did not do so, Fifa gave us until the end of June 2006. It then extended the deadline to July 31. However, parliament goes into recess today and will not reconvene until August 14. If the Fifa deadline is to be met, parliament will have to hold a special session, which seems unlikely."

Leon said various members of parliament had expressed the firm opinion that parliament should not be expected to simply rubber-stamp Fifa's demands.

"The organisers, meanwhile, are frustrated at what they see as the legislative obstinacy. But the real problem, for which blame must be shared all around, is that we are only dealing with the issue now, more than two years after South Africa won the right to host," he said.

Leon said some commentators had pointed out that South Africa was lagging behind in its planning to build new stadiums. “We have to have them ready before the Confederations Cup in 2009, and Fifa wants them to be ready by June 2008 – only two years from now.”

Construction has not yet begun.

Thus far, FIFA has only vaguely hinted at its dissatisfaction with South Africa, and soccer's governing body is unlikely to pull the event, unless absolutely necessary. Such a move would send the wrong message, one of exclusion rather than diversity.

FIFA has done this only once before, moving a planned World Cup in Colombia to Mexico in 1986, when the Colombians admitted three years ahead of the event that they didn't have the funding to pull it off. The South Africans probably would have to ask out themselves, in similar fashion.

For the 2014 tournament, Brazil had previously been earmarked. The U.S. is ready and waiting, just in case. And then after a recent trip to South America, FIFA president Sepp Blatter sounded pessimistic in April about giving the World Cup to Brazil.

"For the time being," Blatter said. "I don't think Brazil has a stadium for the Cup."

Blatter already has indicated he would not want to have another World Cup staged simultaneously in two countries, such as Argentina and Chile. Japan/Korea was a clumsy marriage in 2002. And there are no other South American countries that would seem to have the resources to pull this off alone.

That could leave several nations bidding for the orphaned World Cup, including Australia, England, Mexico and the United States.

"Let's just say we're hopeful, and FIFA knows we want to be hosting more than just Under-19 tournaments in the future," said one U.S. official familiar with the talks.

Several factors are working in America's favor, even beyond the obvious financial and sponsorship factors. Australia is a remote outpost, difficult for fans of other countries to reach. Its time zone would create similar headaches as Japan/Korea. And in 2014 it may be too soon to return to Europe, for England, after this World Cup in Germany. Meanwhile, Mexico already has staged the World Cup twice in the last 36 years.

So the U.S. believes it has a legitimate shot at 2014, while indicating that should South African preparations falter they would be ready for 2010...