Organiser feels South Africa will be ready

There are few concerns in South Africa about the nation's ability to host the 2010 World Cup.

While FIFA president Sepp Blatter said there were contingency plans in place, he stressed it would only be used in case of natural disaster.

"It is because of Sepp Blatter that we are hosting the World Cup," South Africa chief organiser Danny Jordaan said. "Without him bringing in a rotation policy, it would have been very hard for us. He said that Plan A is South Africa, Plan B is South Africa and Plan C is South Africa. He just stated that in case of a natural disaster they would look elsewhere but our country has no history of natural disasters so they won't need to."

Jordaan said work on all five new stadiums had started, including the 68,000-seat Green Point stadium in Cape Town that was delayed by local protests. He also said the event received enormous financial backing.

"FIFA has already generated for the World Cup in South Africa the highest revenue ever, USD 3.2 billion. It's the highest in the history of the World Cup," Jordaan said. "South African companies have also committed USD 100 million to the event...it's higher than what local companies committed in 2002 in South Korea and Japan. If major multi-nationals and South African companies are investing in the World Cup surely they have done their homework."

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.