NOUAKCHOTT: While much of the football world is focused on South Africa, where the Africa Cup of Nations is approaching its climax, FIFA president Sepp Blatter is heading for Johannesburg via various other African destinations.

Blatter began his six-day working visit to the continent  in Mauritania,  turning his attention to development programmes in the world’s least developed nations.

He considers such projects as lying at the heart of FIFA’s mission – and the African ones have largely been made possible by the success of South Africa 2010.

“When we decided to hold the World Cup in Africa, we encountered objections from a lot of people who said it would be a failure,” said  Blatter during his visit. “Instead, South Africa 2010 was an unprecedented success and that allowed us, for the first time, to pay out a bonus to all the member associations.”

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