The score is three-two in favour of South Africa — and there is no chance of a penalty shoot-out. So says the South African head of world football governing body Fifa, Michael Palmer, in reaction to ”faceless rumours” that Fifa was considering moving the 2010 World Cup.
Newspaper reports last weekend said Fifa was contemplating moving the 2010 event from South Africa to Australia. ”Third world” public facilities, crime, HIV/Aids and insufficient accommodation were the main stumbling blocks listed in Rapport.
”The reports are not true, they are ridiculous. Fifa is very happy with the progress of the preparations,” Palmer fumed.
There are only two reasons a country would lose the right to host a World Cup, he said. These are when war is on the horizon, or when a huge unforeseen disaster occurs.
Palmer pointed out three achievements this week that should squash any doubts about South Africa hosting the 2010 World Cup.
The first was Friday’s unveiling of the 2010 tournament’s emblem in Berlin, officially launching the event to the public. Significantly, this event was hosted by Fifa chief Sepp Blatter and attended by President Thabo Mbeki and senior members of the South African government.
At the unveiling ceremony, Fifa disclosed its plans for development and legacy projects for Africa. These schemes were designed to advance the growth of the game on the continent, using 2010 as a catalyst.
Thirdly, said Palmer, the ceremony witnessed the announcement of 10 football ambassadors for 2010.
If this was not sufficient for the cynics’ scorecards, Palmer added that approval and funding for all projects was agreed on between the South African government, Fifa and the host cities long before deadline. According to Fifa, this has never happened before.
He said the local organising committee had managed to ensure all project dates were met. It would be financially ludicrous for the world football governing body to be involved in these extensive plans if it had other ideas about where to stage the event.
”From now on, Fifa is going to be promoting 2010 in South Africa,” said Palmer. After the finalisation of Germany 2006 this weekend, more comprehensive plans and their implementation would start.
Concerns about South Africa’s state of preparedness were not invalid, he added, but the Fifa office was set up in Johannesburg more than seven months ago, specifically to monitor progress.
An example was the South African Football Association (Safa) house, currently under construction opposite the FNB stadium in Nasrec. It is due to be finished by the end of the year, as scheduled.
”The project is being delivered by Safa, as promised, and this gives us confidence in the local organising committee,” said Palmer.
Fifa would have been the first to know if something was not right, and the world body would have raised the issues with the government and local football authorities long ago. ”Fifa is a signatory to all contracts with host cities, and constantly monitors whether all the things said in contracts are delivered on time. At the moment, no one can point to anything that South Africa is not delivering, or on which to base accusations that the country would be unable to host the event,” said Palmer.
In addition, on Thursday, First National Bank became the first South African corporate to sign up as a national supporter of the 2010 World Cup, announcing a $30-million (about R216,5million) sponsorship. FNB will be the official bank for the 2009 Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup. It will provide full service banking, including commercial and corporate transactional banking, foreign exchange transactions and off-site ATMs at various locations serving the two Fifa competitions in South Africa.
The Confederations Cup in 2009 will be used as a barometer to test the country’s facilities and rectify problem areas. Ron DelMont, Fifa’s senior manager of project planning, is the head of a team monitoring progress on technical areas such as the state of stadiums and pitches.
Fifa set 2009 as the deadline for the completion of five stadiums. The completion date for another five is early 2010. The cities that will host the Confederations Cup are yet to be decided on, but this will happen soon.
”The reason the Confederations Cup is played in the same country that hosts a World Cup is because the planning and deadlines for 2010 revolve around the Confederations Cup. It gives us time to measure and rectify problems,” said Palmer.