South Africa shifts into 2010 gear
10 July 2006
The official logo has already been unveiled, all the host cities and stadiums have been announced, the sponsors are on board ... as the curtain came down on the 2006 Fifa World Cup on the weekend, South Africa made its intentions plain: to make 2010 the most successful World Cup ever.
The four-year journey to the 2010 Fifa World Cup kicked off with "the biggest football party ever" at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate on Friday.
From Germany to South Africa
As the responsibility for hosting the world's biggest sporting event was officially handed over to South Africa, a free concert featuring some of Africa's brightest musical stars kept football fans dancing long into the night in the German capital.
Addressing the show audience - and millions of television viewers watching the broadcast in over 120 countries - President Thabo Mbeki said the 2010 World Cup would "stand out as a unique event that celebrates Africa in all its magnificent splendour, its vibrancy, its uniqueness and its diversity."
To those who doubted SA's ability to pull of such a massive event, Mbeki said: "We said we would rid the world of apartheid, and we kept that promise. I've said ... we would host the most successful World Cup ever in South Africa, and we will keep that promise."
Fifa president Sepp Blatter said the world trusted South Africa to deliver a world-class event in 2010, adding that this was SA's chance to show the world "the beauty of your country and its hospitality, the depth and differentiation of all your cultures, and the expertise you have."
Ahead of schedule
With the unveiling of the official 2010 World Cup emblem on Friday, and the announcement of the country's nine World Cup host cities - a full 17 months ahead of deadline - South Africa hit the ground running in its preparations for the event.
With 75% of Fifa contracts for the tournament signed and sealed, South Africa 2010 has already outperformed every other World Cup in terms of revenue.
"The money is in the bank as we speak," Danny Jordaan, chief executive of South Africa's 2010 local organising committee, said last month.
Speaking at a Johannesburg conference on local government and the 2010 World Cup, Jordaan said the European broadcasting rights had already been signed, securing Fifa US$1.2-billion (about R7.8-billion). This exceeded the amount obtained during the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan, and was also expected to exceed Germany 2006.
"There will be additional revenues, in that people will be able to watch the full World Cup match from their mobile phones," Jordaan added.
"We want this World Cup to be world class, and it has already outperformed the other World Cups in terms of revenue."
Nine cities - Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Nelspruit, Polokwane and Rustenburg - will host World Cup games in South Africa, with 10 stadiums already identified and approved by Fifa.
Jordaan expressed confidence that the stadiums would be ready by 2009, as five of them would be needed when the country hosted the African Confederation Cup.
"We have no reason not to believe the infrastructure will not be ready," Jordaan said. "We have a budget of R3.4-billion to deliver this event. The money is already available."
Changing perceptions of Africa
"Fifa went out of its way to have a World Cup in Africa and there's no trepidation at all about having it there and having it delivered, " Michael Palmer, head of Fifa's 2010 World Cup office, said in a recent interview with The Star.
"But we have bigger hopes for this, that the 2010 World Cup will change the world's perception of the African continent and provide wonderful opportunities for people in the future.
"The hope is that it will be the sporting event that does the most good for a country and a continent."
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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