South Africa rolls out red carpet for World Cup delegation

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 29 (AFP) - The vast majority of South Africans have never heard of Jan Peeters, Pertti Alaja, Jacques Bouillon, Michel Sablon or Harold Mayne-Nicholls.

But that will change Thursday when the five inspectors from world football's governing body FIFA arrive here for a seven-day visit to check the capability of South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup.

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The two Belgians, Finn, Frenchman and Chilean will be treated like heads of state and the hectic itinerary includes a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria on Friday.

Another highlight will be a visit the following day to Ellis Park, the Johannesburg venue of the 1995 Rugby World Cup final, for the League Cup quarter-final between popular local club Kaizer Chiefs and Ajax Cape Town.

There is also a dinner with King Goodwill Zwelithini, leader of the majority Zulu tribe, in Durban and a journey to Robben Island off Cape Town where Nelson Mandela was jailed for more than two decades.

Mandela became the first democratically elected leader of the nation in 1994 and last week met FIFA president Sepp Blatter in Switzerland to push the South African bid.

"It means a great deal to us because we have been wanting this World Cup to be played in South Africa for a long time," Mandela told Blatter, a long-time supporter of the country.

"When we host an important international event like the World Cup, we spread the message that South Africa is part of the global world and the Rugby World Cup in 1995 united black and white people in the country."

South Africa won the rugby championship and were also successful hosts of the 1996 African Nations Cup football tournament. The country also staged most matches in the 2003 Cricket World Cup, which went off without a hitch.

After failing to Germany by one vote in the 2006 World Cup contest, South Africa are media favourites to win an all-Africa contest next April against Morocco, considered the biggest threat, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

Belgium Football Association president Peeters and his team began their tour of the five candidates in Morocco this month and left impressed with the enthusiasm and strong will to win of the North African kingdom.

Danny Jordaan, the workaholic chief executive of the South African campaign, admits Morocco can play the strong emotional card of three failed bids when the 24 FIFA executive committee members vote.

But Jordaan, a former footballer and member of parliament for the ruling African National Congress, believes South Africa have the edge in key areas like corporate support, economics, infrastructure and telecommunications.

South African companies have leapt on the World Cup bandwagon, raising 12.5 million dollars, while the country has the most advanced economy and telecommunications on the continent, and numerous potential venues.

While their rivals have massive building programmes, South Africa already boast more than the eight stadia required with plans to increase the capacity of the showpiece Soccer City in Johannesbury from 80,000 to 110,000 seats.

Other centres likely to host matches if South Africa are successful include Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Polokwane (formerly Pietersburg), Port Elizabeth and Pretoria.

South Africa passed the 2006 World Cup inspection with flying colours only to be foiled by Scottish octogenarian Charles Dempsey. Representing Oceania, he abstained from the final vote, giving Germany a 12-11 victory.

Jack Warner, a powerful FIFA executive committee member from Trinidad and Tobago and a staunch backer of the South African 2006 bid, told a Johannesburg newspaper that complacency could be the biggest threat this time.

"One gets the feeling, which might be my own assumption or perception, that the South African government is too laid back and believes this is a done deal. Nothing could be further from the truth," the veteran official warned.

"South Africa must double the effort they put in for 2006. They need all the support they can get from the government, the community, the corporate world as well as CAF (African football governing body).

"They also need to rope in more international figures. My colleagues at FIFA are divided among the different countries and this is going to be a difficult one to call because only African nations are bidding."

Jordaan is certainly not complacent, telling a Cape Town football magazine that a team does not win the World Cup final because it lost the previous one on a penalty shootout.

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