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South Africa foresees successful 2010 World Cup
Satish C Sekar talks stadiums, tickets and crime with Danny Jordaan, CEO
of the local organising committee for the 2010 World Cup
Satish C Sekar: When you were bidding for the World Cup, you said you
wanted it to help promote South Africa. Since winning the bid, has the
country benefited as you'd hoped?
Danny Jordaan: Absolutely. In 1990 Mandela walked out of prison
and in '94 we had our first democratic elections and one of the things
that we had to make sure of is that we wouldn't be forgotten by the international
community. We wanted to ensure that South Africa must be discussed at
the dinner and lunch tables of the big business companies of the world.
We decided to follow a major event strategy. We hosted the Rugby World
Cup in 1995, the African Cup of Nations in 1996, the 1998 World Athletics
Championship, the 2002 Cricket World Cup, all in order to sustain a developing
consciousness of a united nation in our country. We also had the cricket
Twenty20 World Cup last year. We made a bid for the 2004 Olympics but
lost out to Athens. We made a bid for the 2006 World Cup but lost out
to Germany and now we are hosting 2010. That has achieved two things:
firstly, South Africa was not forgotten after 1994; secondly and perhaps
more importantly, through hosting all of those major events there was
infrastructure improvement in our country ...
Just sporting infrastructure?
No. Airports have been expanded, hotels have been built, direct investment
has increased and, of course, we've seen an 11% annual growth in tourism.
Last year we went beyond seven million foreign tourists, so I think that
through hosting major events we have been quite successful in keeping
the focus on our country and developing South Africa because in most countries
the period of liberation or democracy is followed by a decline in the
infrastructure, especially those countries that went through the decolonisation
process. In our case from 1990 to 2008 the infrastructure in our country
has improved and investment has gone up.
In terms of the 2010 World Cup, are all the stadiums on schedule?
Yes. The main stadium, which will have a capacity of around 80,000 is
set to be completed on time and on budget by October 2009 - although,
in fact, it's currently running ahead of schedule. The ones that are being
used for the 2009 Confederations Cup will be finished by the end of this
year. All in all, we're building five new ones, upgrading one and have
four others. The total cost of the stadiums, transport and other infrastructure
is 15bn Rand [?1.02bn].
What's going to happen to the stadiums after the World Cup?
One of the advantages we have in our country is that rugby and cricket
are big sports, so between football, rugby and cricket I think that use
of the stadiums will ensure that the stadiums are commercially viable.
We are looking to see how we can share the facilities. Football itself
is not strong enough
One of the biggest concerns potential visitors have ahead of 2010 is
the South African crime rate. How are you going to ensure fans are safe?
If crime is so high in our country, how do you explain the fact that there
were seven million tourists last year? How do you explain the fact that
every aircraft to Johannesburg from London is full?
So there's no real security problem in South Africa?
We have crime, but so do you in Moss Side in Manchester, in Leeds and
other places we read about. There is crime everywhere. If somebody can
tell me that there is no crime in London, then at least we have discovered
the British path to heaven. But we have also showed that it is safe in
South Africa. The England soccer team played there. The England rugby
team came to play here. Why would it be different if two million come
for a tournament like the World Cup? Why? I cannot understand that. We
just hosted the Twenty/20 World Cup. Manchester United came to South Africa.
Barcelona was here last year. Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Holland, Sweden
and Denmark have all played here. I don't know why we can have all of
these major internationals here but somehow somebody knows it's not going
to be safe. Yes, we have crime. There are socio-economic challenges -
the lack of housing, education, etc, but we are dealing with those things.
We are safe.
South Africans are presumably very excited about hosting the World
Cup -are you going to ensure ticket prices are accessible for most of
them?
The cheapest tickets in Korea were $50US; in Germany they were $US26.
The cheapest ticket in 2010 will be US$20 - that category will be for
South Africans.
How much will equivalent tickets cost for, say, England fans?
We've approached the federation about this. It seems to us that if you
just sell tickets, then you have people arriving in the country with no
one to take care of them, so if you want to have good organisation, then
the travel agents should meet their guests, take them to the hotel and
make sure that arrangements are taken care of. I've been talking to travel
agents to look at the prices - but what's for sure is that they won't
be able to buy the cheap category of tickets.
How will you stop them buying the cheap tickets off South Africans?
I don't want to go into details but we have procedures in place to stop
that.
Finally, then, what do you think would constitute South African success
on the pitch? An African team must get to the final of the World Cup at
least. African teams have never got to a semi-final before. All African
teams must at least reach the second round - all six of them, and we should
have at least two in the last four. That requires a lot of preparation
and a lot of planning.
So you think an African country can become world champions in 2010?
I think so, even though they will be tired. The African Cup of Nations
will be in January and February and then the players will have to go back
their clubs until around May and at the end of May and the World Cup will
start on June 11. I think some of the countries will need to take a decision
about which to prioritise - the ACN or the World Cup - because otherwise
they may face burn-out.
guardian.co.uk,
March 5, 2008
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