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World Cup 2006 : Fact – finders reach South Africa |
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March
11, 2000 Johannesburg,
Mar 10: The six-strong team of specters from football’s governing body
FIFA arrived here on Thursday with praise for South Africa’s bid to host
the 2006 World Cup, report AFP. American
Lawyer Alan Rothenberg, heading the team as it makes it’s final tour or
the five bidding nations, told reporters that South Africa’s bid
documentation had been among the “most handsome” he had seen. But
FIFA’s inspection intended to “lool behind the documentation had been among the “most handsome” he had seen. But
FIFA’s inspection intended to “look behind the documentation,”
Rothenberg said. South
Africa is competing with Brazil, England, Germany and Morocco to host
World Cup, not even staged in Africa in it’s 70-year history. You
will see and feel the passion for soccer in this country,” bid committee
chairman Irvin Khoza promised the FIFA team. The
inspectors will meet President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria on Friday and visit
most of the nine stadiums across the country where World Cup events could
be stadiums are being built. It
will also inspect security, transport, accommodation and other facilities. The
team will end the tour on Robben Island, the ex-island prison off cape
town where former president Nelson Mandela Spent the bulk of his 27 years
in apartheid jails. South
Africa’s bid has a strong emotional slant, with its officials urging
that it is Africa’s turn to host the world Cup and that the event will
enhance the country’s emergence into democracy after apartheid was voted
out in 1994. “The
tournament can be the greatest incentive and inspiration to all the people
of this country, not only in sport, but in all aspects of life,” South
African Football Association (SAFA) president Molefi Oliphant told the
inspectors. FIFA
is to decide on the successful bid on July 6. Source: The Daily Star |