/ 23 June 2010

German football boss says some doubted SA’s World Cup

When it was announced in 2004 that South Africa would host the Soccer World Cup in 2010, German football boss Theo Zwanziger thought back to a similar day, four years before.

“I remember when it was announced that Germany would host the World Cup, South Africa and Germany were competitors. When I saw the sad faces of the South African delegation that day, I became convinced that we must help our African brothers to get the World Cup the next time around,” Zwanziger told the Mail & Guardian on the sidelines of a reception hosted by German ambassador Dieter Haller in Pretoria on Tuesday.

The German Football Association, of which Zwanziger is president, assisted the South Africans in their preparations to host the biggest sporting event in the world, he said.

The main difference between the experiences of Germany and that of South Africa was the effort the South Africans put into making sure transport and logistical support were in place.

“And the longer distances that have to be covered in South Africa makes transport infrastructure more complicated. Germany already had all the infrastructure, while here things had to be done from scratch,” he said.

Zwanziger admitted that some in the international community were not convinced that South Africa would be able to pull off hosting the tournament.

“There is the issue of expectation management. There was no doubt when Germany won the bid to host the World Cup that it would manage to do so successfully. That trust in South Africa did not exist much with foreign countries.”

He said the biggest headache for the German Football Association had been the the controversy surrounding the Velmore Hotel, where the German football team set up its base camp.

Shortly before the tournament it came to light the hotel was not prepared to host the team. In a hurried set of meetings shortly before the team was due to arrive, Tshwane mayor Gwen Ramakgopa gave the go-ahead for the hotel to host the team.

Zwanziger says the team had not been fazed by the hiccup.

“In Germany in 2006 we had an NGO which gave us the red card because they found the stadia did not have the necessary security measures. But it was resolved quickly and the World Cup went ahead.”

Germany has its last chance to proceed to the second round of the World Cup when it meets Ghana at Soccer City in Johannesburg on Wednesday.