Tournament News
Mandela welcomes SWC trophy
2010-05-06 17:26
Email | Print
Johannesburg - Former SA president Nelson Mandela welcomed the FIFA World Cup trophy to the country on Thursday as preparations for the event hit fever pitch.
The long walk to the 2010 FIFA World Cup started with Nelson Mandela lifting the FIFA World Cup in Zurich on 15 May 2004, as the country was awarded right to host the event.
With tears of joy in his eyes, he proclaimed that he felt “like a boy of 15” on the day South Africa was awarded the right to host the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
On Thursday, nearly six years later, SA’s first democratic president, Madiba, again laid his hands on the FIFA World Cup trophy at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg just 35 days before kick-off of Africa’s first FIFA World Cup. For FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke and Local Organising Committee CEO Danny Jordaan it was a very special occassion to personally share this moment.
“Nelson Mandela was one of the architects of this FIFA World Cup, we will never forget the moment when South Africa was awarded the Fifa World Cup. Madiba is the symbol of this new democratic South Africa. For us there was no way that the Trophy would arrive in the country and not being brought first to Mandela.
“Nelson Mandela expressed his wish that he would see Bafana Bafana to win the FIFA World Cup. We really hope that he will experience together with us the special moment celebrating South Africa’s achievements in the stadium,” said Valcke.
Jordaan, who stood side by side with Mandela on that historic day, was equally thrilled at seeing the trophy in his home country.
“It was so wonderful seeing Madiba in Zurich on the day South Africa won the right to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup, so happy with tears of joy rolling down his cheeks. So, it is quite an emotional and joyful moment to be back bringing the trophy to him, a symbol of world football with a global symbol of humanity,” said Jordaan.
On Friday, 7 May, the trophy will be in Khayelitsha for its final leg of the world tour which will run across 38 cities and towns throughout all nine provinces in the host country.