BuaNews (Tshwane)
Bathandwa Mbola
20 November 2008
Cape Town — The draw for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup on Saturday is to be used as a platform to "celebrate Africa's humanity".
Briefing reporters following Cabinets latest meeting held on Wednesday, Government Spokesperson Themba Maseko said: "This tournament is the precursor to the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals and will provide South Africa with the opportunity to demonstrate our readiness and ability to host world class events as we say 'Ke nako-celebrate Africa's humanity'."
The draw will decide the match schedule and composition of the two groups of the eight-team competition to be held from 14 to 28 June 2009. The teams include Brazil, Egypt, Iraq, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, South Africa and the USA.
The 16 matches will be played in four of South Africa's stadium's including Johannesburg's Ellis Park Stadium, Rustenburg's Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Pretoria's Loftus Versfeld, and Bloemfontein's Free State Stadium. The advertisements for the Confederations Cup started in earnest in local media at the weekend. The adverts read: "The Champions are coming." And "Come watch Brazil for only R70".
The reports on the preparations for the Confederations' Cup and world cup finals were noted by cabinet.
"While the programme for the construction of the stadia are on track, cost overruns remain a major concern," Mr Maseko said, adding that government will allocate an additional R1.4 billion towards the cost over-runs for the construction of the host and training stadia.
National Treasury is looking into the matter to "ensure that cost management measures are put in place by the host cities to prevent any further cost overruns. "
He said the reports also indicated that plans were in place and being implemented in the areas of transport, safety and security, energy, social legacy and arts and culture. Tickets for the Confederations Cup will go on sale on the day of the draw on 22 November, while Soccerex, the business-to-business expo, will open on Sunday at the Sandton Convention Centre.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 BuaNews. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
