South Africa organized one of the best World Cups ever, says FIFA President Sepp Blatter

12 July 2010

SOUTH AFRICA proved the pessimists wrong by delivering one of the most spectacular football World Cups ever, and has won praises from the world football body for its efforts.

"You have shown the world that you can achieve anything," said Sepp Blatter, the head of FIFA. "It's time now that you show the rest of Africa that it can achieve anything. There were many pessimists in the beginning but as I always said, it was a question of trust and confidence and we trusted South Africa and they [delivered]."

He added that the country deserved nine out of 10 for staging the tournament - it would have got 10 but "perfection does not exist in our life".

Blatter was speaking at a wrap-up conference in Sandton on Monday, 12 July, a day after the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ ended. It had been an incident-free World Cup that had impressed a lot of people. "South Africa has managed to stage an impressive World Cup and has left a good impression on the people of the world. You can be proud of that. The compliments should go to you, not to FIFA."

Organising Committee
His words were echoed by the chairman of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa (OC), Irvin Khoza, who said South Africa had silenced all critics. He was speaking at the same conference.

"What this World Cup has done is eliminate all the perception the world had of us. The iconic nature of our infrastructure - not only the stadia but even transport - will send a message to the sporting bodies that they can rely on this country for any future sporting event," Khoza said.

And President Jacob Zuma had nothing but praise for the organisers of the football tournament. FIFA and the OC had done "sterling work", he said at the SABC Broadcast Centre in Sandton on the same day.

"We have been able to show the world that we have what it takes to compete with the best, united in diversity … This is truly an emotional moment for a nation that had doomsayers warning football fans to avoid coming to South Africa."

Hype
However, the tournament had been made more interesting by football fans who kept up the hype. Zuma said the country had come together and that there had been "an explosion of national pride".

"The real champions of the tournament have been the visitors and football fans from Africa and all over the world. They displayed amazing levels of energy and commitment," he said.

The cherry on top was the final between Spain and Netherlands, which was preceded by a spectacular closing ceremony. It was hailed by many football fans as one of the most impressive they had ever seen.

FIFA has noted several tournament highlights:

• In South Africa, the Bafana Bafana versus Uruguay match attracted an average of 10,15 million viewers, by far beating previous viewing records, including the 1995 Rugby World Cup final and the FIFA Confederations Cup 2009 semifinal.
• On average, each match was watched by almost 70 million people at home in 11 key markets, namely: South Africa, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, China and Japan.
• Total attendance was 3 178 856 spectators at the 64 matches in the 10 stadiums - the third highest aggregate attendance behind USA 1994 and Germany 2006.
• Over 2,6 million people visited FIFA Fan Fests™ in South Africa.
• The highest number of visitors at international FIFA Fan Fests™ was recorded in Berlin, in Germany, when Germany played Spain in the semifinal, with 350 000 people.

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