OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cairo | Tuesday 5.00pm.
FIFA President Joseph Blatter urged Africa to pull behind one of its two national candidates to give the continent a good shot at hosting the World Cup in 2006.
“To have a real chance… Africa should make sure that there will be only one candidate from Africa,” Blatter said after South Africa and Morocco submitted rival bids in Cairo on Sunday to the African Football Confederation (CAF).
The confederation did not take a stand in line with policy, but African soccer officials privately hoped the candidate with the smaller chance would eventually withdraw from the running.
Blatter, an outspoken supporter of Africa as cup host, welcomed as “salutary” South Africa’s pledge to contribute $2-million to start a trust fund aimed at developing African soccer.
“I support this idea because it will help a continent which until now has been a little neglected on the international competition level,” he told proposals.
Blatter has not said which African candidate he prefers. Fifa must review the bid books from the African and other candidates — England, Germany and Brazil — due by a July 31 deadline.
The world soccer body president said Africa had nothing to fear from the traditional soccer powers, either in terms of their ability to host a world event or compete in it.
“We must be confident that the candidates from Africa are able to organize the World Cup and we shall not look only towards the highly technically developed countries in Europe,” Blatter said. “I’m sure Africa, from the infrastructure (viewpoint), is ready to organize the World Cup 2006,” he said.
In a century of competition, Africa will have been the only major Fifa confederation that has yet to host the tournament after the next World Cup finals co-hosted by Japan and South Korea in 2002.
Blatter was in Egypt meeting with the Egyptian Football Association, CAF officials and other Fifa officials. — AFP
Meanwhile, FNB announced its financial support for the bid. Viv Bartlett, FNB’s chief executive officer, said of the multi-million rand sponsorship: “We salute SAFA and the Bid Committee for their courage in pursuing this ultimate sporting goal and we are convinced that South Africa is going into the bidding process well prepared and with a better than even chance of success.
“We witnessed in 1995, the euphoria generated through South Africa’s successful hosting and ultimate victory in the Rugby World Cup, followed in ’96 with equal triumph in the Africa Cup of Nations soccer tournament. These achievements clearly demonstrate that South Africa has the capabilities, the infrastructure and the stadia to host an event of this magnitude.”