briker
September 24th, 2010, 03:22 AM
September 23 2010 at 11:25pm
LOC CEO Danny Jordaan and Fifa Secretary General Jerome Valcke attend the 2010 Board Press Conference at Sandton Sun in Johannesburg.
Johannesburg - South Africa has set a new benchmark for future World Cup finals, Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke said on Thursday.
“It was an incredible story,” said Valcke, speaking after a meeting of the 2010 Board of Directors in Sandton.
He lavished praise over the success of the 2010 World Cup finals staged in South Africa for the first time, between June 11 and July 11 this year.
“South Africa has set the bench mark for future World Cups. The draw for the finals staged in Cape Town last December was perfect. It was a fantastic success and Brazil who host the 2014 know they have a lot of work to do to match South Africa.
“But we have time to help Brazil host an as good if not better event.”
Over three million fans watched the 64 matches live while the final between Spain and Holland was watched by a staggering 700
million viewers on television worldwide.
Valcke said that South Africa had raised the bar for future World Cup finals. The secret he said was for Fifa to work closely with the LOC.
“We had an incredible relationship with the LOC.”
Valcke disclosed that Fifa would be setting up a trust fund for the development of soccer in South Africa.
“Fifa president Sepp Blatter will be coming to South Africa in early November to meet President Jacob Zuma to announce the profits from the World Cup and to set up this special 2010 Fifa World Cup Legacy.”
The 2010 World Cup has been a massive boost to the South African economy over the past four years.
It is estimated that government infrastructure and investment in the tournament build-up led to a contribution of R93 billion to the country’s economy. This, amid the period of the global recession, has helped keep the economy stable.
Valcke’s comments were pure vindication for LOC chief executive Danny Jordaan, who promised from the minute South Africa won the bid to host the 2010 World Cup in 2004 that South Africa would host the best World Cup ever.
Jordaan came in for flak from the European media, especially in England and Germany, which said South Africa was a crime-infested country not able to host the biggest sporting event in the world.
But Jordaan proved his detractors wrong and said he had no hard feelings towards England: “I wish them luck for their bid to host the 2018 World Cup.”
Jordaan said the 2010 spectacle was a unique event.
“South Africans are an amazing people. When Bafana Bafana went out of the competition in the first round, our fans simply switched their support to other countries and this helped in a huge way to make the tournament the success it was.
“The fact that the whole country embraced the World Cup made it a success. The fact that there were no major crimes to deal with was fantastic. The police were great and apart from petty crimes there were no serious crimes to deal with.”
Jordaan was not worried about the new stadiums that were built for the event such as the FNB Stadium, Cape Town, Moses Mabhida (Durban), Mbombela (Nelspruit) and Peter Mokaba stadiums.
“Most of those stadiums are now being used as multi-purpose stadiums. They are part of the legacy left by the World Cup.”
But Jordaan was concerned by the small average attendance of fans at PSL matches. “In Europe 30,000 is the average attendance for games while in SA it is 3000 and we need to work on that especially 1/8by 3/8 encouraging youngsters to watch.”
On the legacy fund Jordaan said the money had to be used for development and nothing else: “We need to develop the game at grassroots and this is where the money must be used.” - Sapa-AP
LOC CEO Danny Jordaan and Fifa Secretary General Jerome Valcke attend the 2010 Board Press Conference at Sandton Sun in Johannesburg.
Johannesburg - South Africa has set a new benchmark for future World Cup finals, Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke said on Thursday.
“It was an incredible story,” said Valcke, speaking after a meeting of the 2010 Board of Directors in Sandton.
He lavished praise over the success of the 2010 World Cup finals staged in South Africa for the first time, between June 11 and July 11 this year.
“South Africa has set the bench mark for future World Cups. The draw for the finals staged in Cape Town last December was perfect. It was a fantastic success and Brazil who host the 2014 know they have a lot of work to do to match South Africa.
“But we have time to help Brazil host an as good if not better event.”
Over three million fans watched the 64 matches live while the final between Spain and Holland was watched by a staggering 700
million viewers on television worldwide.
Valcke said that South Africa had raised the bar for future World Cup finals. The secret he said was for Fifa to work closely with the LOC.
“We had an incredible relationship with the LOC.”
Valcke disclosed that Fifa would be setting up a trust fund for the development of soccer in South Africa.
“Fifa president Sepp Blatter will be coming to South Africa in early November to meet President Jacob Zuma to announce the profits from the World Cup and to set up this special 2010 Fifa World Cup Legacy.”
The 2010 World Cup has been a massive boost to the South African economy over the past four years.
It is estimated that government infrastructure and investment in the tournament build-up led to a contribution of R93 billion to the country’s economy. This, amid the period of the global recession, has helped keep the economy stable.
Valcke’s comments were pure vindication for LOC chief executive Danny Jordaan, who promised from the minute South Africa won the bid to host the 2010 World Cup in 2004 that South Africa would host the best World Cup ever.
Jordaan came in for flak from the European media, especially in England and Germany, which said South Africa was a crime-infested country not able to host the biggest sporting event in the world.
But Jordaan proved his detractors wrong and said he had no hard feelings towards England: “I wish them luck for their bid to host the 2018 World Cup.”
Jordaan said the 2010 spectacle was a unique event.
“South Africans are an amazing people. When Bafana Bafana went out of the competition in the first round, our fans simply switched their support to other countries and this helped in a huge way to make the tournament the success it was.
“The fact that the whole country embraced the World Cup made it a success. The fact that there were no major crimes to deal with was fantastic. The police were great and apart from petty crimes there were no serious crimes to deal with.”
Jordaan was not worried about the new stadiums that were built for the event such as the FNB Stadium, Cape Town, Moses Mabhida (Durban), Mbombela (Nelspruit) and Peter Mokaba stadiums.
“Most of those stadiums are now being used as multi-purpose stadiums. They are part of the legacy left by the World Cup.”
But Jordaan was concerned by the small average attendance of fans at PSL matches. “In Europe 30,000 is the average attendance for games while in SA it is 3000 and we need to work on that especially 1/8by 3/8 encouraging youngsters to watch.”
On the legacy fund Jordaan said the money had to be used for development and nothing else: “We need to develop the game at grassroots and this is where the money must be used.” - Sapa-AP