Sepp Blatter

Related Links

• PE fiasco casts cloud over SWC
• 2010 needs public's support
• Jordaan spells it out

Cape Town - Fifa President Sepp Blatter has urged the world to trust South Africa and the African continent to deliver a successful Fifa World Cup.

With Monday marking the 500-day countdown to the kick off of the 2010 showpiece, Blatter praises South Africa for being “a young republic, but an organised one”, and outlined the challenges the World Cup hosts will face, both in the next calendar year and beyond.

According to an interview on the Fifa website, Blatter outlined his hopes for Africa and African football, both on and off the pitch.

“Africa has given the world of football so many, many talented and outstanding players, coaches, clubs and national teams and therefore it was justice that one day that they would host the World Cup in Africa.

“Now it is Africa's time. I am very happy that in 500 days the World Cup will kick-off in South Africa. It will be an historic moment. For me, it will not only be a realisation of a dream, but of an initiative I had back in 1976 when I started my career as a Development Officer in Fifa. It was then I went to Addis Ababa [in Ethiopia] and saw what football means to Africa.

“The challenge for South Africa is to deliver the Fifa World Cup - and to deliver it at the highest possible level. They will do it, especially with all the arrangements they have made in terms of construction, technical and logistical infrastructure; transport, hospitality, accommodation etc.

“South Africa is an organised country. They haven’t had all the civic and political rights other countries have had until 1994, so it is a young republic, but an organised one. Therefore, it is not a difficult task to make this Fifa World Cup a success.

“But this is not just a Fifa World Cup for South Africa; it is an African World Cup.”

Blatter also said he did not think that the global economic crisis would have an impact on the preparations ahead of the 2010 kick off.

“The budgets have been composed, given and ratified. Naturally, we might not have the same return of investment as we had at the last World Cup in 2006, but the world was a different place then. For Fifa, it’s not important to get money out of Africa, but it's important to us that the Africans enjoy organising their own World Cup - and they will do.

“A lot of big footballers such as Pele, [Michel] Platini, [Johan] Cruijff and [Franz] Beckenbauer say that primarily football is a game - and secondly a business. For Fifa it is not a business - it is the game of association football.

“We have to trust in the Africans’ ability to organise the competition. Trust will give them confidence. If they have confidence, they will be better in the future.”