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The 2010 Fifa World Cup will be a missed opportunity for South Africa if the country doesn’t speed up its preparations and market itself better.

Speaking at the International Media Forum in Johannesburg yesterday, Virgin Atlantic’s communications director, Paul Charles, said: “I think there are issues South Africa needs to deal with very urgently.”

He said the World Cup would go ahead but it would be “a bumpy ride getting there” because of inadequate infrastructure, unreliable power supplies, the recent xenophobic violence in informal settlements and political change.

“In June next year, South Africa will have a wake-up call because the people coming [to the World Cup] will make bookings a year ahead. It’s not June 2010, it’s June 2009 that’s the deadline.”

The World Cup local organising committee’s spokesman, Tim Modise, said: “Unfortunately, whoever is telling the story that we are behind is more convincing than we are.

“The Nelson Mandela Bay stadium will be complete by March.

“All the new stadiums are going to be completed months ahead of schedule,” he said.

Responding to questions about the low level of media coverage on South Africa’s preparedness for the World Cup, Modise said: “I think the 2010 World Cup story is not to be told only by the local organising committee — the event belongs to Fifa.”

Charles said the new ANC leadership must create confidence that South Africa can host the event.

“There is usually great uncertainty during the handover period and South Africa doesn’t have the luxury of time — it needs to create certainty within the first few weeks,” he said.

(Source: Thetimes.co.za)