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Sport | Soccer

Rugby-mad Cape set for 2010 World Cup draw

DAVID LEGGE | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Dec 01 2009 07:42
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Come this Friday evening and the rugby-mad city of Cape Town will be temporarily transformed into the football capital of the world.

As dusk envelopes one of the most popular international tourist attractions, the Cape Town International Convention Centre plays hosts to the 2010 World Cup draw scheduled to be broadcast live in almost 200 countries.

Jerome Valcke, France-born secretary general of world football governing body Fifa, will conduct a draw designed to split the 31 qualifiers and hosts South Africa into eight groups.

Each team from Argentina in the deep south to North Korea in the far east is guaranteed three mini-league fixtures, with group winners and runners-up moving on to the four-round knockout stage.

The choice of Cape Town, with Table Mountain overlooking the city that regularly woos the rich and famous, was founded on democracy with Durban staging the qualifying draw and Johannesburg hosting the June 11 opening game.

But to some South African sports lovers it must seem a strange choice given the fondness for rugby, with matches involving the oval ball consistently attracting far larger crowds than those for football fixtures.

A game involving the Springboks is a guaranteed sell-out at Newlands, but not so with Bafana Bafana, despite one of their best known players, Benni McCarthy, hailing from the Mother City.

Ask many Capetonians who the most popular football club in the city is and the snap answer will be Manchester United followed by Liverpool, a reference to the often poor backing for local elite league clubs Ajax and Santos.

Behind a draw set to attract 2 000 guests and 800 media representatives lies months of work that leading South African World Cup official Danny Jordaan is convinced will deliver a stunning show.

CONTINUES BELOW


Jordaan bore the brunt for several years of doubters who did not believe Africa was capable of staging the most popular sports event in the world and he cannot contain his excitement as the draw countdown begins.

"There are two projects left in the delivery of the World Cup -- the draw this Friday and the tournament starting next June. The Fifa Confederations Cup has really shifted the mood worldwide.

"Where people once questioned and doubted, we have now reached a position in which they are looking forward in anticipation and excitement to the Fifa World Cup in South Africa.

"The draw has all the ingredients to capture the imagination of the watching world. We look forward to welcoming the qualifying countries so that they may share the rhythm and energy of our continent," said Jordaan.

Cape Town mayor Dan Plato is no less thrilled ahead of a draw likely to be attended by top national team coaches like Dunga of Brazil, Fabio Capello of England and Marcello Lippi of Italy.

"The timing of the draw coincides with the festive season and Cape Town is prepared to deliver a unique experience for visitors and the football fraternity alike," he said.

Apart from the who's who of football, the Grammy award-winning Soweto Gospel Choir, Beninoise singer-songwriter Angelique Kidjo and internationally renowned South African singer Johnny Clegg will share in the 90-minute draw spectacle. -- AFP
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What time is the draw going to be televised? I've been googling this for an hour now and I can't find anything that tells me what time and on what channel.
Tasmeena Maharaj on December 1, 2009, 9:10 am
Thaks FIFA, more especially Sir Blatter in beiliving in South Africa, where other so called South Africans didnt. For the WC Rugby I never heard anyone talking about crime the way people are now even poor people were excited. For the WC cricket, Pro 20 etc no one uttered a word of crime the way the do now. Rugby stadiums were built other were renovated, no one said anything about waisting money in our country. Now Sir Blatter gave chance to SA, suddenly there was noise. Is it jelousy or idoitic to even go out of the way to makert crime for your own country. Now the world cup is becoming a reality people are starting to ask for business proposals.. There is really a bunch of confused individulas in this country....
Masixole Kawuleza on December 1, 2009, 9:15 am
Remember how the Cape Town mayor tried to halt the construction of a stadium to be used for the world cup and fast forward 3yrs,now Cape Town is now the city to host the draw.
This is plain hypocrisy,Durban and Johannesburg were in the fore front to make sure that South Africa hosted the best world cup ever.

The Cape Town mayor then did not want South Africa to host the world cup citing reosons that the money to build stadiums should rather be used for building houses,schools etc.but now they realise that the world cup will bring a huge R.O.I. which will in turn increase the country's GDP,Tax revenue(VAT,Excise etc)and employment.

Danny Jordan,your actions are slap in the face for the hardworking Mayor of Durban Obert Mlaba and his joburg counterpart,Amos Masondo.These two gentleman stood the toughest criticism of spending billions in stadia but keppt theiir heads up and how do you repay them....??by taking the draw to Cape town the city that did not want the world cup held in this country.
Facts and stuff like that on December 1, 2009, 10:11 am
2010 World Cup draw

According to dstv - SS3 18:00 Dec 4th
Colin Drew on December 1, 2009, 10:50 am
Tasmeena, also being televised on SABC1 at 6.30pm 4/12/2009
Irene Levey on December 1, 2009, 11:05 am
@ Masixole Kawuleza "...Thaks FIFA, more especially Sir Blatter...." "SIR....?" When did he ever buy a Knighthood? - That is on par with "Sir" Droolious Melanoma - knighted for his services to stupidity .... or even "Sir" Leonard Chuene for his servicing of Caster - hahaha

But in reality Seppy boy is a controversial and corrupt "official" - almost on par with the ANC - amassing personal wealth as he goes along his merry dictatorial way...

But here is part of his profile on Wikipedia......

Sepp Blatter studied in Sion, Switzerland before getting a degree in business and economics from the University of Lausanne in 1959.

Blatter has a long and varied history including posts such as Head of Public Relations of the Valaisan Tourist Board in his native Switzerland, as well as General Secretary of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation. He was Director of Sports Timing and Relations of Longines S.A. and was involved in the organization of the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games. In the early 1970s, Blatter was elected president of the World Society of Friends of Suspenders, an organisation who tried to stop women replacing suspender belts with pantyhose. [2][3][4]

Blatter first made his name in the world of football in 1973 as Chairman of the Zurich Brown Shirts. Since 1975 Blatter has been working at FIFA, first as Technical Director (1975-1981), then General Secretary (1981-1998) before his election as FIFA President in 1998. He was re-elected as head of FIFA in 2002, defeating in the election, and was re-elected unopposed for another four years on 31 May 2007 even though only 66 of 207 FIFA members nominated him.

Allegations of corruption

Sepp Blatter's 1998 election to the presidency of FIFA over UEFA President Lennart Johansson occurred amidst much controversy.[7][8] His 2002 candidacy has been marked with rumours of financial irregularities and backroom dealings,[9] culminating with direct accusations of bribery made in the British press by the Farra Ado, vice-president of the CAF and president of the Somalian football association, who claimed to have been offered $100,000 to vote for Blatter.

Also in 2002, FIFA's secretary-general, Blatter's deputy and former protégé Michel Zen-Ruffinen, drew up a 30-page dossier outlining allegations of financial mismanagement within the organisation. The dossier alleged that the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner ISL had led to losses of up to $100m under Blatter's management. The allegations were backed by Johansson, and the dossier was handed to the Swiss authorities, but in the end no action was taken. An internal investigation within FIFA was halted by Blatter, which was seen by many as proof of his guilt. Zen-Ruffinen was removed from office by Blatter immediately before the FIFA World Cup 2002.

2006 FIFA World Cup

During the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Blatter's absence during the prize-podium event was noted and criticized in international media, as it was considered odd by many that FIFA's president was not present during the climax of FIFA's biggest event. Some people claimed that the reason Blatter didnt attend was because he was upset that Italy won instead of France.

Blatter also made the press for comments made after a controversial second-round match between Portugal and the Netherlands, which saw referee Valentin Ivanov issuing a record 16 yellow cards and four red cards. After the match, Blatter lambasted the officiating, and said that Ivanov should have given himself a yellow card for his poor performance as a referee. However, on the day when Ivanov turned 45, Blatter said he regretted his words and promised to officially apologise to Ivanov.

Women's football

Blatter incurred the ire of women footballers in 2004 when he suggested that women should "wear tighter shorts... to create a more female aesthetic", remarks which were ridiculed in the press.

Foreign Quotas

Blatter incurred much criticism during 2007 and 2008 for his persistence in attempting to change EU employment law regarding the number of foreign players football clubs can field at any one time. His plans are to set a restriction to 5 foreign players and having 6 players from the said team's own nationality. Blatter believes this would help the countries' national sides by having more national players playing in their leagues.

This is hotly debated among the footballing world with mixed views. Some believe it would benefit national sides and others believe that it will lower the standard of football being played in the country. Blatter has often referred to the English Premier League as one of the major problems in football and uses it as an example, due to the influence of foreign players, coaches and owners in the top teams.

Cristiano Ronaldo "slave" comments

In 2008, Real Madrid launched several attempts to lure Manchester United star midfielder Cristiano Ronaldo to Spain in spite of Ronaldo's valid contract until 2012. When Ronaldo signalled his desire to leave, Manchester United categorically declined his request. Blatter then said that "Manchester United were effectively indulging in 'modern slavery' by refusing their Portuguese winger a transfer to Real Madrid." These comments were met with outrage in the football world, including by black players like Paul Parker, who criticised: "He obviously doesn't realise the significance of the term and it's insulting to all the people who have been real slaves through the ages - the guys who would get hung, drawn and quartered or beaten for being slaves rather than paid millions of pounds to play football." English managers Harry Redknapp and Steve Bruce dismissed Blatter's statement, with Bruce saying that footballers have 'the best job in the world' and Redknapp saying that Blatter was 'way off beam with those comments'.

The Telegraph has pointed out the discrepancy between Blatter's comments on the Ronaldo case and that of Andy Webster, who in 2007 breached his contract and left Heart of Midlothian to play for Wigan Athletic. FIFA ordered him to pay Hearts compensation of £625,000, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport was asked to rule on the case and reduced the payment to £150,000, which was the value of the remaining contract. Sepp Blatter severely criticised this due to the lack of a punitive element: "The decision which CAS took on 30 January 2008, is very damaging for football and a Pyrrhic victory for those players and their agents, who toy with the idea of rescinding contracts before they have been fulfilled." He continued, "Because of this unfortunate decision, the principle of contractual stability, as agreed in 2001 with the European Commission as part of the new transfer regulations and which restored order to the transfer system, has been deemed less important than the short-term interests of the player involved."

Changes to the game made under Blatter

* The "silver goal" replaced the "golden goal" rule in extra time of play-off matches. Under the "golden goal" rule, the match ends immediately one side scores in extra time. The "silver goal" rule states that the match will end at the half-time period in extra time if one team is leading – otherwise the match will continue until the end of the extra time period. Some fans believe that this rule change makes the game less exciting, while others felt that the game is more fair as a result. The new rule was first applied in the Euro 2004 competition, but it has since been discontinued along with golden goal. All competitions have now reverted to the traditional extra time rules, i.e. they must play the full amount of extra time, no matter what the score is.
* After the 2002 World Cup, the current World Cup champion no longer automatically qualifies for the next World Cup finals, as was the case for the champions of all 16 previous World Cups.
* National associations must now enforce immediate suspensions of all players sent off during a game, even if television replays offer compelling evidence of a player's innocence. In particular, Blatter insists that a referee's judgement must be seen as final and that mistakes are part of the game. The FA, however, has refused to follow this directive, and allows appeals against straight red cards (though not those resulting from two yellows).
* Under Blatter, starting in 2004, the game implemented the booking of players who remove their shirts after scoring a goal, as well as those who are guilty of 'over-zealous celebrations'. The rationale for this rule change is that football is a global sport, and thus the sensibilities of conservative nations and spectators must be respected.
* In 2007, Blatter decided that no football matches will be played above 2500 metres (8200 ft) above sea level. This arbitrary number was revised to 3000 metres on 26 June 2007. This may have been aimed to split the opposition group formed by Colombia, Ecuador (who play at altitudes below 3000 metres but above 2500), Bolivia and Peru (with stadia above 3000 metres). This has dramatic consequences for the Bolivian national team, whose stadium is located more than 3000 metres above sea level. Blatter commented that football matches at extreme altitudes belong to the past, and that they are risky for players' health. However, no comprehensive medical studies have been shown to prove this. The Andean nations argue that playing in hot, sea level temperature is in fact more dangerous, citing the death of Marc-Vivien Foé as an example.

And of course the latest blunder by one of his "serfs" where the Irish were defeated by the "hand" of his favourite French team - so maybe your team should learn how to "hand ball" - much easier than trying to kick the ball in.....
Jay Vincento on December 1, 2009, 11:27 am
Hm, nice to read these two comments in juxtaposition...

"Blatter incurred the ire of women footballers in 2004 when he suggested that women should "wear tighter shorts... to create a more female aesthetic", remarks which were ridiculed in the press."

vs

"Under Blatter, starting in 2004, the game implemented the booking of players who remove their shirts after scoring a goal, as well as those who are guilty of 'over-zealous celebrations'. The rationale for this rule change is that football is a global sport, and thus the sensibilities of conservative nations and spectators must be respected."
Jim Brown on December 1, 2009, 11:42 am
Maybe perhaps he was trying to promote more of Brandi Chastain's style of celebrating - but then again being a dour Swiss perhaps not?

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://pgb51.typepad.com/photos/jolies_sportives/soc_zoom.jpg&imgrefurl=http://pgb51.typepad.com/photos/jolies_sportives/soc_zoom.html&h=507&w=500&sz=44&tbnid=6YV1gnXhfqOWRM:&tbnh=131&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbrandi%2Bchastain%2Bpictures&usg=__AYJOavnZmWPthCWEBGsYzQ_RezU=&ei=IB8VS4ihH82GkAWCkayCBw&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&ved=0CAcQ9QEwAA

Hope the link works?
Jay Vincento on December 1, 2009, 4:10 pm
jay vincento -- um, try that again with tinyurl. seriously.

masixole -- nelspruit's stadium will cost about R700 million. do you know how many matches will be held there? FOUR. where, exactly, is the ROI on that going to be.

or, better yet, polokwane's stadium, which also will only hold four matches, cost nearly a billion rand. who *willingly* goes to polokwane? the return on investment there versus, oh, building 10,000 rdp houses?

when south africa didn't get 2006, they should have gotten its act together and fixed up the country and concentrated on 2014 instead of 2010. instead, they wasted an extra decade of the lack of service delivery.

i wonder how many people are going to be shot to prevent service delivery protests from making it onto the global media. in brazil [another high-crime country], the government doesn't even pretend that the crime problem isn't bad: state and local governments buy off the biggest gangs and tell them to keep their poor people in check. the gang apparatus is not that strong in south africa to pull off a similar measure -- that the violence in south africa is so random is the reason why people are concerned.

and you clearly weren't paying attention during various cricket and rugby world cups, possibly because you don't follow them. if you've ever stayed in a hotel here during those times [or knew anyone who did], you would know that the hotels themselves had outlined the no-go areas.

but go ahead, continue with your kakprattery.
ursa negro on December 1, 2009, 6:28 pm
The Economic spin offs are in the both the long and the short term.

In the short term,SA is expecting a total of more than 450 000 foreign fans into the country and can you imagine if they each spend and average of R30K then it means that there will be an injection of more than R10bn of direct expenditure from the fans,and remember this is before the corporates around the world's expenditure.If the total figure is R20-30bn then it's worth it.
There'll be an increase in employment although it may be in the short term but it can pprovide work experience for the unemployed in various sectors.

In the long term,I know that SASCOC intends applying for the hsting of the Olympics Games,CAF games and IAAF games and you know these events further attracts a lot of fans and tourist who will see our country during the world cup.My friend the spin offs are way way to much.

When Suun City Hotel was being built, a lot of critics thought that it will be a white elephant and you know that Sun City has been attracting millions of tourists for the past 20yrs.

This world cup will bring a lot for this country.
Facts and stuff like that on December 1, 2009, 8:31 pm
I'm just hoping we get New Zealand in the draw :)
Dylan Goodwin on December 2, 2009, 1:02 pm
true Dylan!! im cossing my finger for that!
Africa 4 Africans on December 3, 2009, 10:31 am
Woza 2010 :) Quarters finals for Bafana, a bold prediction and feeling positive, come on, we know South Africa can do it!
Dylan Goodwin on December 3, 2009, 10:55 am
well, its here, no matter how one feels about it, I hope that it puts SA on the map, unites our divided country & brings the ROI that some predict. The cost of the sadiums is extremly high, but I believe the investment in these will be far more beneficial, in the longer term, than the money spent on the arms deal. Lets just enjoy the moment & perhaps SA will emerge a better place at the end of it. Go SA you can do it!!!!!
nigel van ysendyk on December 4, 2009, 4:14 am
With you on this Nigel, excited and positive about our chance to host the world and watch some awesome games of footy :)
Dylan Goodwin on December 4, 2009, 9:54 am
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