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South Africa: Fifa Drops Port Elizabeth After Delays
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
9 July 2008
Posted to the web 9 July 2008
Bheki Mpofu
Johannesburg
DELAYS in the completion of its stadium has led to Port Elizabeth being dropped by Fifa as a venue for next year's Confederations Cup, a tournament seen as a dress rehearsal for the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup.
The local organising committee said yesterday that Nelson Mandela Bay, the municipality under which Port Elizabeth falls, had been excluded from the Fifa Confederations Cup 2009 schedule after it became clear that its stadium would not be ready by the deadline of next March .
The decision - made on the recommendation of the organising committee's technical team - comes amid concerns about whether SA will be ready to host the World Cup.
Recent media reports suggest that Fifa already has a plan B in place as it feels SA might not make the deadline.
Committee chairman Irvin Khoza said the stadium remained one of the 10 venues earmarked for the 2010 event despite yesterday's decision.
Khoza said the committee was monitoring all other stadiums to be used for the Confederations Cup, and warned that if any failed to meet deadlines they would be removed from the tournament schedule.
"We acknowledge the progress that has been made on the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in recent months. With the complex nature of the construction and erection of the roof of the stadium, however, it was decided that it would be too high a risk to keep the stadium in the Fifa Confederations Cup schedule. But ... we reiterate that the stadium will be a wonderful venue in 2010," Khoza said.
Fifa secretary-general Jerome Valcke said the board had shown that it was not afraid to take tough decisions to ensure the overall success of the Confederations Cup.
Nelson Mandela Bay deputy mayor Bicks Ndoni expressed disappointment, saying the municipality was "completely baffled by the decision".
"The stadium will be ready and in full compliance with Fifa standards by March 2009 in accordance with the plan and schedule agreed with the (committee), its technical team and Fifa," he said.
"We are ahead of schedule with respect to certain elements. For all other elements, we are well within the time frames. We can only assume that the decision has been made for reasons other than technical."
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