With less than 70 days before the announcement of the 2010 Soccer World Cup host, Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the South African 2010 bid, remains optimistic about the country’s chances to win the race for the major event.
The host nation will be announced by the Fifa executive committee in May.
‘South African has all the capacity anyone can think of [that is needed] to host the 2010 World Cup event in 2010,” said Jordaan.
Addressing journalists in Johannesburg on Wednesday about the country’s preparations to compete for the major soccer event, Jordaan expressed his confidence in South Africa winning the race.
‘There is no other country that I know of, throughout the rest of the continent, that has had success in holding major events like South Africa,” said Jordaan.
He cited the Rugby World Cup in 1995, the African Cup of Nations in 1996 and the World Summit for Sustainable Development in 2002 as examples.
Jordaan said what remains a challenge for his team now, although not a problem, is to convince 13 out of the 24 voting countries to win the bid for South Africa.
‘That for me shouldn’t be a problem at all,†he said.
South Africa has all the necessary infrastructure in place to host the event.
Three more stadiums, Jordaan said, will be built in three cities — including Nelspruit and Bloemfontein — before the World Cup. This is in addition to 10 stadiums that already exist in the country.
The FNB Stadium, which will be completed soon, will be the biggest over the past 14 years of Fifa World Cups.
About Bafana Bafana’s poor performance in Tunisia and the sacking of coach Ephraim ”Shakes” Mashaba, Jordaan said this will not affect South Africa’s chances of winning the World Cup bid.
He used Germany as an example.
‘They [Germany] crashed out of the Euro 2000. The coach was fired and yet two weeks later, Germany won the race to host the 2006 World Cup,†said Jordaan.