Could SA be Fifa’s ‘Plan B’ for 2014?

It’s still too early to gauge the impact that the 2010 World Cup will have on international perceptions of South Africa. Nevertheless, it’s safe to say that a great deal of inaccurate and over-the-top foreign media coverage has contributed to the dip in projected foreign visitors for the month-long event.

A number of initiatives have been undertaken over the past few months to showcase all the positives — and there are many — that this country has to offer. On Sunday, for example, SA Tourism teamed up with German radio station SWR3 (which has about four million listeners) to market the opening of the R8 billion King Shaka International Airport.

Isabelle Kendzia, a spokesperson for SA Tourism in Germany, said the initiative was aimed at increasing the hype about South Africa in Germany “because there has been a lot of negative press in Germany around the hosting of the event”. This is despite the fact that South Africa completed its stadium construction projects in record time and is well on track to host a successful tournament.

Of course, this is not the first time that the hosts of a mega sporting event have had to overcome a barrage of negative publicity. The architects of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens were the laughing stock of the international community as bitter in-fighting and poor planning delayed key construction projects, raising concerns over whether the International Olympic Committee had erred in its choice. But everything eventually fell into place as the clouds parted and Greece — and the rest of the world — enjoyed a spectacular event.
Interestingly, with the 2010 World Cup now just five weeks away, Fifa is already taking aim at the hosts of the next edition of the tournament. This week, the governing body’s secretary-general, Jerome Valcke, noted that “it is amazing how Brazil is already late”.

Valcke highlighted several areas of concern after receiving a report on the progress of the 12 stadiums being constructed or up-graded by Brazil to host the tournament for the first time since 1950. ”The stadiums are the basic points we need to have a World Cup and in Brazil, for the time being, most of the deadlines are already over and we have to work on new deadlines,” he told Associated Press.

Is it just a matter of time before global football’s governing body begins earmarking South Africa as its “Plan B” for the 2014 World Cup?