'Plan B' is also South Africa: Fifa
Themba Gadebe
4 May 2007Fifa has reaffirmed its confidence in South Africa's ability to host the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
This follows recent reports that Fifa President Sepp Blatter told some media that other countries stood ready to host the tournament should South Africa fail to deliver.
However, Fifa's director of communications, Markus Siegler, has informed South Africa's Local Organising Committee in writing that football's governing body remains committed to staging the event in the country.
"As usual, Mr Blatter unequivocally and unambiguously expressed his full confidence in South Africa in its ability to host the Fifa World Cup," Siegler said.
According to Siegler, the BBC reporter interviewing Blatter repeatedly asked if the event would be taken to another country in case of some disaster or catastrophe in South Africa.
Blatter explained that a similar plan had been in place for Germany, which hosted the 2006 World Cup, saying: "We definitely must have a possibility to go somewhere else, but it must be a natural catastrophe."
Blatter maintained his confidence in South Africa during the interview: "They will do an excellent World Cup," he said. "The fact of the matter is that there is no such a thing as a contingency plan. The plan B has been and will continue to be South Africa," Blatter added.
Siegler noted that some of the quotes were edited down and used on two BBC radio programmes, claiming that Fifa had a contingency plan to go to other countries for the World Cup.
"This is of course completely incorrect and myself and [the] Fifa media department are strongly clarifying this to all media who have inquired about these misrepresented facts," Siegler said.
South Africa is on schedule to meet Fifa's deadlines for building and upgrading stadiums and other infrastructure, with construction having started on five stadiums that are being built from scratch.
Source: BuaNews
