BuaNews (Tshwane)
Michael Appel
21 November 2008
Johannesburg — South African's must take it upon themselves to ensure every stadium during Confederations Cup match is packed to capacity, says Local Organising Committee (LOC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Danny Jordaan.
Addressing media gathered for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup pre-draw media briefing on Friday, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) highlighted that South Africans must fill the stadiums and embrace all the team players who have travelled to the continent, many for the first time.
"We must make sure we fill the stadiums and as the host nation embrace all teams. As the hosts we cannot embrace one or two teams but we have to embrace and support all teams," said Dr Jordaan.
FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke said South Africa was six months away from hosting the Confederations Cup and 18 months from the hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The draw for the Confederations Cup is et to take place during a live broadcast on Saturday at 5pm.
The draw will include reigning 2006 world champions Italy, host country South Africa, and continental champions Egypt, Iraq, Spain, the United States of America, Brazil and New Zealand.
"The draw will involve eight teams split into two groups. South Africa will fall into group A1 as they will play the opening match of the Confederations Cup at Ellis Park Stadium," Mr Valcke said.
Tickets for the tournament are scheduled to go on sale on 23 November, the day after the draw, and will be available on-line at fifa.com as well as all First National Bank (FNB) branches nationwide.
There are two types of tickets namely the individual match ticket and the venue specific ticket.
Category four tickets are reserved exclusively for South Africans and the US dollar exchange rate for the tickets was frozen at $1 to R7 by the LOC in order to benefit the South African poorest of the poor.
The cheapest category four tickets for group stages during the tournament will cost R70 or $10, while the cheapest category four tickets for the final will cost R210.
Miss South Africa Tansey Coetzee, who is among the eight contestants for the Miss World pageant, will assist with the draw on Saturday evening.
Ms Coetzee said: "Excitement is growing and all eyes will be on South Africa. I am confident the Confederations Cup will be a very successful event."
Chairman of the LOC Dr Irvin Khoza said over 17 000 volunteers had applied to work at the "The majority of those who applied are unemployed professionals with a background in law and marketing and hopefully after the event they can be absorbed into the market.
"We have 10 volunteer interns working at the LOC at the moment who will leave with good experience," said the chairman.
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