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/ 25 January 2009
SA marks 500 days to the World Cup finals on Monday facing questions over the country’s ability to be ready in time for the start of the tournament.
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/ 22 January 2009
The countdown to Africa’s first Soccer World Cup hits the 500-day mark next Tuesday, but you’d hardly know it from walking the streets.
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/ 15 December 2008
Fifa president Sepp Blatter squashed talk of ditching South Africa as 2010 World Cup hosts on Monday, insisting there was ”no Plan B”.
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/ 10 December 2008
Preparations for the 2010 Soccer World Cup are well on schedule and the reported ”Plan B” is dead, CEO of the LOC Danny Jordaan said on Wednesday.
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/ 22 November 2008
South Africa faces a major challenge to fill stadiums during next year’s Confederations Cup, organisers said.
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/ 21 October 2008
The world economic crisis will only have a ”limited impact” on preparations for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Danny Jordaan said on Monday.
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/ 17 October 2008
Spokesperson for the 2010 World Cup local organising committee Tim Modise has resigned, world soccer governing body Fifa said on Thursday.
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/ 23 September 2008
The mascot for the 2010 Soccer World Cup was officially introduced to the South African public on nationwide television on Monday night.
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/ 4 September 2008
SA’s 2010 World Cup organisers are upbeat about Fifa president Sepp Blatter’s visit next week in order to ”showcase” the progress made.
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/ 1 September 2008
Nearly 40 000 South Africans have applied to volunteer at next year’s Fifa Confederations Cup, the organisers said on Monday.
Gauteng is ahead of schedule to host next year’s Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup finals, it was announced on Thursday.
Hosting the World Cup will set South Africa back much more than estimated, with rising costs expected to swell the bill for stadium construction.
Upgrading Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria is ”slightly” behind schedule but the stadium will be ready for the Soccer World Cup in 2010, a manager said.
It is 10 years since the South Africa Football Association (Safa) first announced its intention to host the sport’s biggest showpiece, the World Cup. Today, the idea, first mooted by former Safa president Solomon ”Stix” Morewa, is less than 740 days from being realised. The Mail & Guardian tracks the history of South Africa’s biggest sporting fantasy.
Soccer World Cup chief organiser Danny Jordaan condemned anti-immigrant violence in South Africa on Friday but said it would pass before the tournament takes place. ”Our standpoint is that this World Cup must be a celebration of Africa’s humanity,” he told the International Football Arena conference.
As the sun set on another bloody day of xenophobic violence in Gauteng on Monday, at least 22 people were reported dead, many more injured and 217 arrested for fierce attacks on both foreigners and local residents living in the greater Johannesburg area. Aid organisations were assisting thousands of refugees at civic centres and police stations.
Bafana Bafana’s new coach, Joel Santana, will have to earn his huge salary when he arrives in Johannesburg next week to take over from fellow Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira. Santana was warned by world football governing body Fifa that it expected Bafana to shine at both the Confederations Cup next year and the 2010 World Cup finals.
Carlos Alberto Parreira’s uncertain future as South Africa coach will be made clear on Monday, the South African Football Association (Safa) said on Saturday. ”We will make a statement after an executive committee meeting,” Safa CEO Raymond Hack said. The announcement follows in the wake of reports he planned to resign to return to Brazil.
Bafana Bafana desperately need to uncover a new striker ahead of next year’s Confederations Cup. That was the opinion expressed on Wednesday by the CEO of the 2010 local organising committee , Danny Jordaan. While Jordaan is happy with the progress that coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is making, he is concerned by the fact that there is no successor to Benni McCarthy.
South Africans will be able to watch the 2010 Soccer World Cup for free on South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) television or at public viewing events, Fifa announced on Monday. Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke said the SABC did not need a licence to broadcast the Fifa Confederations Cup in 2009 or the 2010 World Cup.
The South African government will spend ”upwards” of R30-billion on the 2010 Soccer World Cup, according to a report released on Tuesday. Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who received the report, admitted that ”in some instance” initial budget estimations were conservative.
Tim Modise’s days at the 2010 local organising committee (LOC) are numbered and the only questions are whether he will fall on his own sword or be axed, say informed sources close to the LOC and in the government. The sources told the Mail & Guardian the one-time star broadcaster is struggling with his role as chief officer of communications and marketing.
Packages for the 2010 Soccer World Cup will go on sale in South Africa in June, sales agent Match Hospitality announced on Wednesday. ”We want to give priority to the domestic market,” the company’s chief operating officer, Pascal Portes, said at the launch of the hospitality programme in Johannesburg.
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/ 18 February 2008
The Fifa local organising committee (LOC) on Monday rubbished claims of divisions within the local 2010 organising body on Monday. LOC chairperson Irvin Khoza said the focus should be on the 2010 project and not his relationship with committee CEO Danny Jordaan.
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/ 17 February 2008
Infighting and mistrust are tearing the 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC) apart, a media report said on Sunday. Key players in the LOC — tasked with organising Africa’s first Fifa Soccer World Cup — were barely talking to each other, while chief executive Danny Jordaan has been labelled a ”control freak”.
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/ 18 January 2008
The aftermath of the bitter contest for African National Congress (ANC) leadership has spilled over to the 2010 Soccer World Cup local organising committee (LOC) boardroom. The ANC Youth League, which helped Jacob Zuma defeat Thabo Mbeki for party presidency, now wants Mbeki’s confidant, Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad, out of the LOC.
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/ 24 November 2007
Fifa president Sepp Blatter is confident the World Cup 2010 stadiums will be ready on time, and the workers building them will get a bonus if they don’t go on strike again. Also, local fans discovered on Saturday they will get cheap and even free tickets to the games.
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/ 23 November 2007
South Africa’s ability to stage the world’s most widely watched sporting event will undergo intensive scrutiny on Sunday when it hosts the qualifying draw for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Thousands of football administrators and journalists will be present in Durban, with hundreds of millions more watching on television, for an extravaganza designed to silence the sceptics.
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/ 22 November 2007
Fifa president Sepp Blatter arrived in Durban on Thursday amid tight security. His arrival ahead of the 2010 preliminary draw came on the same day that 2010 South African local organising committee CEO Danny Jordaan unveiled the 2009 Confederations Cup emblem at Durban’s International Convention Centre.
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/ 22 November 2007
World soccer governing body Fifa was concerned about 2010 stadium preparations, its general secretary, Jerome Valcke, said on Thursday at a media briefing in Durban. Stadium workers in Nelspruit, Durban and Cape Town recently staged strikes for better wages and this raised concerns that South Africa would not be ready to host the World Cup.
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/ 14 November 2007
The strike at the 2010 stadium in Durban will not affect the preliminary draw of the Soccer World Cup, local organising committee CEO Danny Jordaan said on Wednesday. Workers at the stadium went on strike last week demanding better wages and monthly project bonuses of R1 500. The draw will determine the playing groups for the World Cup in South Africa.
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/ 6 November 2007
The first Soccer World Cup to be held in Africa can be the glue which binds a continent too often riven by conflict, according to the man in charge of organising the world’s most popular sporting event. Danny Jordaan said the 2010 tournament was a perfect opportunity to showcase Africa and banish negative stereotypes.