Harare — ZIFA, seeking to capitalise on the 2010 World Cup show, are expected to get a major insight into how they could benefit from South Africa's staging of the global soccer showcase when they attend a high-profile seminar on the tournament in Polokwane (Pietersburg) this week.

There has been huge interest among Southern African countries on the World Cup since South Africa won the right to become the first African nation to host the event.

But for all the frenzy that followed Fifa's decision to accept South Africa's World Cup bid, there had been no major link between Zifa, the South African Football Association and that country's 2010 World Cup organising committee on strategies that could benefit the local game.

However, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, who are also hoping to reap some rewards from the "invasion of Southern Africa" by the football fans during the World Cup, have been working closely with their South African counter- parts to establish ways of cashing in on the imminent tourist boom.

It is against the background of the links between the ZTA and Trade and Investment Limpopo that Zimbabwe have been invited to the crucial seminar, which is scheduled to run from July 27-29.

The local tourism authority in turn roped in Zifa as the custodians of the game for the business seminar whose theme is "Towards South Africa 2010 World Cup: Investing in Limpopo and Beyond".

Karikoga Kaseke, ZTA chief executive, said yesterday he was optimistic the seminar would help both Zifa and the tourism authority get a clear direction on where Zimbabwe needed to place itself ahead of the soccer showcase.

Kaseke is also expected to present a paper on "maximising benefits for tourism" for the Southern African countries and his emphasis would be on Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

The ZTA boss said it was imperative that Zifa, who will be represented by the association's boss Wellington Nyatanga and co-ordinator of the Warriors fund-raising committee Henrietta Rushwaya, ensured that local football maximised from South Africa's staging of the World Cup.

"This is an important seminar that will give us a chance to show what Zimbabwe and Southern Africa can offer beyond South Africa's borders during the World Cup.

"I think it will be a very crucial session to speak on what Zimbabwe can offer because South Africa have indicated that they want it (World Cup) to be an African perspective and not just a South African perspective.

"So it will also focus on strategies on how tourism can fit into the World Cup and how associations like Zifa can benefit from the development of football infrastructure ahead of the World Cup.

"Although we have hosted some officials from South Africa on tourism and the World Cup, this is the first high-profile meeting that Zimbabwe has been invited to and it comes after the South Africans returned from Germany where they learnt a lot.

"I think after this seminar we will have direction on where Zimbabwe can place itself both for tourism and on the field of play and it would be very nice if we can qualify and have our Warriors among the teams at the World Cup," Kaseke said.

A host of high profile speakers such as the Premier of Limpopo Sello Moloto, Joe Phaahla, director general of the Fifa 2010 World Cup unit, Danny Jordan chief executive of the South African organising committee and Fifa media consultant Emmanuel Maradas will present papers on various topics.

Orlando Pirates boss Irvin Khoza, who is also chairman of the South African World Cup organising committee, will give Cosafa countries an insight "on building a winning team", while top South African bank ABSA will lead a panel discussion on the financing of infrastructure development for the tournament.

Virtually all the Cosafa nations are looking at grooming young talent and build strong teams for the World Cup and former Ria Stars director and Safa administrator Ria Ledwaba will also present a paper on "mentoring young football talent for building a winning team".

Zifa have also put in a bid to the Government to have the National Sports Stadium refurbished and turned into an artificial surface in time of the World Cup.

With Fifa also indicating their willingness to support African countries improve on their facilities ahead of the World Cup, Zifa believe Zimbabwe could attract teams to the country if the National Sports Stadium was to have the kind of artificial surface that would be used for the 2010 tournament.