CHRISTIAN RADNEDGE in Doha: South Africa’s 2010 World Cup organising leader believes the success of those finals helped paved the way for the tournament to go to new territories such as Russia and Qatar.
Danny Jordaan was speaking at the International Sport Security Conference in Doha when he talked about how many fears over the tournament in South Africa had been put to bed.
He said: “I think that FIFA, the global community and commercial partners realised that to go to emerging and new markets creates a different challenges but a lot of excitement in these new territories.
“I think the world looks forward to a World Cup in Brazil and Russia because they expect it to be different – and a World Cup in Qatar because it will be very different.
“So it is then up to the organising countries that to make sure that the people responsible are sticking to the programme and delivering on the time frames.”
That is a specific current concern over Brazil which has been criticised increasingly for tardy preparations by both FIFA president Sepp Blatter and – notably lately – secretary-general Jerome Valcke.
Jordaan offered some advice for the Brazilian 2014 organising committee, saying: “One must have an actual understanding of where they are. In some areas they may be ahead, and in others behind – you need to analyse and then say: ‘What are the measures that we have to introduce to make sure that everything will be in place by the time that kick off comes around?’”
Speaking on a panel about maximising the legacy and hosting a major sporting event, Jordaan said that there were many pre-conceptions about South Africa before the tournament but that these had been transformed over a period of just “30 days”.