South Africa has made a good start in its preparation to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup, a Fifa spokesperson said on Friday. Marcus Ziegler was part of a delegation from the world football governing body who visited eight of South Africa’s 13 cities bidding to host games in 2010.
The officials visited Johannesburg, Tshwane, Rustenburg, Bloemfontein, Durban, the Nelson Mandela Metro and Cape Town.
”I think I speak on behalf of all of my colleagues when I say that we feel that South Africa has made a good start,” Ziegler said.
”We had a very good impression. Everywhere we went we were received extremely well,” he said.
”The cities, stadiums, provinces were well prepared and well documented are showed good awareness of all Fifa’s regulations.”
Ziegler said the trip to South Africa was about listening and getting informed.
He said the officials were not in the country on an inspection.
”We did not go into details,” he said.
Asked whether South Africa still had a lot of work to do before the event, Ziegler said: ”At this stage I cannot say that anything is wrong. Of course there’s still a lot of work to do. There’s even work for Germany to do with one year to go before they host the World Cup”.
He said the success of the World Cup would depend heavily on the spirit of those involved.
”The look is one thing, the feel is the other.”
Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile said a maximum of 10 cities and a minimum of eight would host games in the World Cup.
He said a decision on which cities would host games would be made before the end of the year.
Fifa would start inspecting venues and seeing whether South Africa was meeting its requirements in 2008.
Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the organising committee for the 2010 World Cup, said preparations for the event were still in the very early stages.
”We are merely putting our toes in the water. There is a long way to go,” he said.
The Fifa officials will conduct the next leg of their tour later this year when they visit Kimberley, Orkney, Potchefstroom, Polokwane and Nelspruit. – Sapa