A week to D-day

For seven years 2010 bid committee CEO Danny Jordaan has been on the road trying to secure the World Cup for South Africa. Now he is just seven days away from realising his dream.

It all began in 1997, when South Africa first decided to bid for the 2006 World Cup. When world football’s governing body, Fifa, announced in 2000 that the 2006 tournament would go to Germany, Jordaan was despondent. But he decided later that year to try to win the 2010 bid. In the intervening four years he’s travelled thousands of kilometres and visited hundreds of cities in pursuit of this dream.

The globe trotting will now culminate either in a big disappointment or in jubilation on May 15. Before the South African delegation left for Geneva this week, Jordaan said: ‘I am satisfied and optimistic about our chances of winning the 2010 World Cup.”

This week Fifa’s technical report — compiled by the inspection committee that visited all the bidding candidates — was released. It placed South Africa first, ahead of Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya in terms of readiness to host the event. The report is expected to give a clear indication to the 24 Fifa executive committee voting members which country to select as host.

Jordaa said: ‘The technical report has given us a tremendous boost before the final vote.”

Jordaan and his delegation will make their final bid presentation in Switzerland on May 14, facing the 24 Fifa executive members in one room for the first time.

But the bid chief has tirelessly cris-crossed the globe, attending all the congresses of Fifa’s member confederations over the past four years in his efforts to persuade 13 of the voting members to back South Africa’s cause.

Jordaan said the May 14 presentation would be used to address the few concerns raised in the technical report, such as safety and security and government backing for the bid. It will assure Fifa that the South African government is in full support for the bid and will provide finance.

Jordaan said that for a successful World Cup Fifa would want to generate $3,25-billion — 60% of this revenue would be acquired through broadcasting fees with the remainder from merchandising, licensing, programmes, ticketing, hospitality and the sponsorships.  

The bid chief would not say which voting members he believed would come out in support of the South African bid. He said they had learned from the 2000 debacle that if you announce the people who say they will vote for you the opposition will try to convince them otherwise.