South African President Thabo Mbeki pledged on Monday to ensure the first-ever World Cup to be staged on African soil will benefit the whole of the world’s poorest continent.
”We have to make absolutely certain that 2010 will benefit Africa and the African diaspora,” Mbeki said in a speech at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Countries close to South Africa are hoping to reap significant dividends from the 2010 tournament, both from tourists and teams looking for training bases ahead of the finals.
Interest in football, already the most popular sport in Africa, is also likely to accelerate in the countdown to the big kick-off.
Mbeki said the tournament should leave Africa a whole better off, and he expressed the hope that it will lead to other countries on the continent staging the world’s biggest sporting event.
”We should have this African legacy; we are working in a systematic manner so that it has a lasting legacy,” he said in front delegates at the summit, which included Fifa president Sepp Blatter.
”As we proceed on our way towards 2010, the continent and the African people will be better than they are today thanks to the role of football.”
Blatter said Africa had fully earned the right to stage the tournament. South Africa controversially lost out to Germany to host the 2006 event but bounced back with its follow-up bid.
”Africa has provided the world with so many players and coaches,” said Blatter. ”We had legitimate joy when South Africa won the rights to host the World Cup in 2010.
”We are optimistic that football can make things smooth and Africa can be looked upon with respect rather than being patronised.”
African football has made huge strides in the last two decades and players such as Barcelona’s Cameroon striker Samuel Et’o and Chelsea’s Ivorian forward Didier Drogba are gracing the top leagues in Europe.
Issa Hayatou, the head of the Confederation of African Football, said the decision to hand the continent five places at the next World Cup is a signal of growing respect.
”We will see that we have to prove ourselves after we have been handed five places,” he said.
Hayatou echoed Mbeki with his desire for the whole continent to benefit from 2010.
”I want to tell you that the World Cup should be for the entire continent, not only for South Africa,” he said.
”We have differences, but we should be together from north to south and west to east. Who could have thought about this 20 years ago?” — Sapa-AFP