Dual name use for 2010
Themba Gadebe
13 August 2007
Global football authority Fifa and the South Africa's Local Organising Committee (LOC) have decided that host cities affected by the name change process are to use both their old and new names in their marketing campaigns.
The decision was made following a visit by senior Fifa representatives, led by Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke last week.
"This positive step allows for the effective global promotion of the host cities while at the same time providing a good opportunity to engage visitors to the country on transformation within the country," LOC chairman Irvin Khoza said.
Khoza said that the name change process proved to be a challenge on issues relating to signage and road maps and commended Fifa for accepting the new changes.
"Fifa came with a reasonable solution to accept that we can use the new names and keep the old ones for the purpose of international marketing. [They] have been very helpful with our dilemma and in
understanding issues," he said.
As such, Khoza said those cities would use "double-barrel" names on tickets and marketing material.
Valcke also praised the LOC for the good progress in the construction of the 2010 stadiums, adding that there was good cooperation between Zurich (Fifa's headquarters) and Johannesburg (the LOC headquarters).
He noted however that Cape Town's Green Point stadium and the Port Elizabeth stadium were behind schedule by "a few weeks".
Both Fifa and the LOC said they would continue to monitor progress on stadiums around the country to ensure that the deadline for the completion of construction, 31 October 2009, would be met.
Source: BuaNews
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