Fifa president Sepp Blatter on Tuesday expressed his full confidence in South Africa’s preparations for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
”I am a happy Fifa president,” Blatter told journalists after meeting President Thabo Mbeki at Tuynhuys in Cape Town.
”Everything is on track. Naturally there exist challenges everywhere, but this is a big challenge to organise the Fifa World Cup in South Africa.”
He said it had been a challenge to bring the competition to the African continent because it had been very difficult to convince international organisations to have confidence and trust in Africa.
But, he said: ”We have to go to Africa, because we have to revolt and make justice to African football.”
Visiting the site of Cape Town’s Green Point Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, Blatter also said he had no doubt that the controversial venue would also be ready in time.
Blatter dismissed worries that crime would affect the World Cup.
He said there were bound to be people who found ”some problem”.
”Go to any big city in the world and you will find the same problems.”
Blatter also made special mention of the role city mayor Helen Zille played in getting the construction of the Green Point Stadium started.
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool told journalists that when it came to the World Cup, Zille and he had ”reached levels of cooperation that whatever the mayor says, I say ditto. That is how much we have worked together.”
The City of Cape Town used the occasion to launch its host city logo, made up of an image of Table Mountain, the sea and sun.
Also on Tuesday, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told a conference in Johannesburg that South Africa was exceeding its obligations in preparing for the cup.
”[Blatter] has told me that they are very happy both with the concrete progress and with the ambience amongst the team responsible for preparations,” she said at the conference on business opportunities for the event.
On sponsorship, Mlambo-Ngcuka appealed to Fifa to allow intellectual property agreements that had been signed to be interpreted more broadly, so that small businesses could get a stake in the event without treading on the toes of big corporate sponsors. — Sapa