FIFA's Blatter Says S. African World Cup `on Track'
20/06/2007 |
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Sepp Blatter, president of football's world governing body FIFA, said South Africa's preparations to host the 2010 Football World Cup are running on schedule and the construction of stadiums should be completed on time.
``I'm a happy FIFA president,'' Blatter told reporters in Cape Town today, following talks with South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki. ``Everything is on track.''
South Africa in 2004 won the right to host the 32-nation tournament in Africa for the first time, beating Morocco and Egypt. The government set aside 17.4 billion rand ($2.5 billion) to build five new stadiums, upgrade five others and improve road, rail and air links for the tournament.
The biggest challenges South Africa faced were improving its transport system and dealing with a huge influx of tourists, Blatter told reporters, before visiting the construction site of Cape Town's new 68,000-seat stadium. South Africa is anticipating 3.2 million visitors to come to the country for the tournament.
Six new hotels are being built in Cape Town ahead of the World Cup, while roads are being widened and the airport expanded, said Ebrahim Rasool, governor of the Western Cape Province.
The city had also installed close-circuit television cameras to monitor the entire inner city and expanded its police force by 10,000 over the past two years, which had resulted in a 17 percent reduction in crime levels, he said.
(Source: Bloomberg.com)
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