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South Africa 2009


Rafa

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2009 FIFA Confederations Cup

2009 FIFA Confederations Cup Draw

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Group A

South Africa

Iraq

New Zealand

Spain

Group B

Egypt

Italy

Brazil

USA

Group Stage matches, times and venues

Sun 14 Jun 2009: Johannesburg 16:00 South Africa vs. Iraq

Sun 14 Jun 2009: Rustenburg 20:30 New Zealand vs. Spain

Mon 15 Jun 2009: Mangaung/Bloemfontein 16:00 Brazil vs. Egypt

Mon 15 Jun 2009: Tshwane/Pretoria 20:30 USA vs. Italy

Wed 17 Jun 2009: Mangaung/Bloemfontein 16:00 Spain vs. Iraq

Wed 17 Jun 2009: Rustenburg 20:30 South Africa vs. New Zealand

Thu 18 Jun 2009: Tshwane/Pretoria 16:00 USA vs. Brazil

Thu 18 Jun 2009: Johannesburg 20:30 Egypt vs. Italy

Sat 20 Jun 2009: Johannesburg 20:30 Iraq vs. New Zealand

Sat 20 Jun 2009: Mangaung/Bloemfontein 20:30 Spain vs. South Africa

Sun 21 Jun 2009: Tshwane/Pretoria 20:30 Italy vs. Brazil

Sun 21 Jun 2009: Rustenburg 20:30 Egypt vs. USA

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Venues

Ellis Park, Johannesburg 61,000

Free State Stadium, Mangaung/Bloemfontein 48,000

Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg 45,000

Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria 50,000

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

$7 to watch Brazil vs. Italy

Soccer fans are clamouring for tickets for the plum Confederations Cup game between current world champions Italy and five-times champions Brazil.

The match will be at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on June 21.

The tickets are not yet sold out, but Fifa media officer Delia Fischer commented: “This particular game, along with those involving host nation South Africa, are attracting the most attention, with sales across the board going well”.

Bafana Bafana are due to open the Confederations Cup against Iraq at Ellis Park on June 14.

Other Bafana Bafana games are against New Zealand at the Royal Bafokeng Sportds Palace in Rustenburg on June 17 and Spain in Bloemfontein on June 20.

Tickets for group stage games in the Confederations Cup can be bought for as little as R70 — although escalating to R700 for the more expensive seats.

SA’s 2010 World Cup Local organising Committee CEO Danny Jordaan says: “Nowhere else in the world could soccer fans watch Brazil playing Italy for R70”.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, however, are the prime tickets for the final at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on June 28 — they will sell locally at R1,400, mushrooming to 500 US dollars (approximately R5,000) overseas.

  • 6 months later...
Posted

No security in place for Confederations Cup

ADRIAAN BASSON | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Jun 05 2009 07:03

A frantic behind-the-scenes drama was playing out at Safa House last Friday to secure the safety of international superstars and tourists attending the World Cup curtain-raiser, the Confederations Cup.

On the same day football boss Danny Jordaan told American decision-makers that a security plan was in place for the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

The Confederations Cup kicks off next Sunday when Bafana Bafana play Iraq at Ellis Park.

The Mail & Guardian can reveal that:

* Until Thursday last week no security company had been appointed to safeguard VIPs, hotels, stadiums and training grounds;

* A consortium comprising the Sweden-based security conglomerate Securitas and local security firm Stallion Security was awarded the multimillion-rand tender, but walked away from negotiations after the organising committee (OC) refused to pay “proper” salaries to security guards and management; and

* A relatively small and unknown Cape Town-based security firm with a limited national footprint, Chippa Protection Services, was appointed by the OC last Friday and ordered to dispatch guards immediately to the four stadiums to be used for Confederations Cup matches.

The New York Times reported this week that Jordaan, the OC’s chief executive, addressed an American crowd in Manhattan last Friday, wooing them to attend the World Cup and addressing fears about security.

“We believe we have a security plan in place and the World Cup will be played without incident. We now have the British Lions rugby team on tour. Next is the Confederations Cup. And if it goes without incident no one will say a word. But if it doesn’t we will never hear the end of it,” Jordaan was quoted saying.

But on the same day, Jordaan’s colleagues had to scramble to appoint security guards to deliver basic security services to players and teams attending the Confederations Cup.

The roots of the mess

The M&G has traced the roots of the mess to February 25, when the tender for the provision of “static and VIP protectors” was advertised by the OC. The tender document states that the tournament requires 1 182 security guards to protect the hotels where players, administrators and referees are staying, the four stadiums used for the Confederations Cup (Ellis Park, Loftus, Bloemfontein and Rustenburg), and the training grounds for the eight participating teams.

The guards should have been trained “to the standards as determined by the OC and Fifa” and were to be deployed from June 4. A small number of security guards had to be placed at the ticket centres in four cities.

But, until the M&G sent the OC questions Wednesday, no award was made. Several industry insiders told the M&G this week about the OC’s mad rush to appoint guards after receiving the newspaper’s questions.

On Thursday last week, representatives from the Securitas/Stallion consortium were summoned urgently to Safa House. There they were told for the first time that the consortium was the preferred bidder and had to dispatch guards to the four stadiums the same night.

The M&G was told that afternoon by OC spokesperson Rich Mkhondo that an award had been made. What he omitted to say was that the award had only been made a few hours before.

According to inside sources, Securitas/Stallion agreed to the award and hastily made plans to provide the required guards.

But on Friday afternoon negotiations broke down after the parties couldn’t agree on payment terms for guards and management. The M&G has it on impeccable authority that the OC offered to pay R300 a security guard for a 12-hour shift.

This, according to industry insiders, is “substantially lower” than the going rate for guards at big sporting events. According to security experts it is quite common for these guards to be paid between R300 and R400 for three-hour shifts at big events.

The Securitas/Stallion consortium subsequently withdrew from the contract. This was confirmed by Stallion chief executive Clive Zulberg, who told the M&G “our offer was a lot more than what they budgeted for”. He declined to divulge more information due to a non-disclosure agreement.

Securitas spokesperson Gisela Lindstrand confirmed the firm’s “ongoing discussions regarding delivering security services for the Fifa Confederations Cup in South Africa, but it is our policy never to disclose any information about negotiations or discussions with potential customers”.

The withdrawal of Securitas/Stallion left the OC without security guards 17 days before the kick-off.

In the meanwhile the OC made an “ad hoc award” to Cape Town-based Helios Security, which also guards Safa House, to protect the stadiums and equipment stored there. Helios director Reza de Bruyns confirmed that they were asked to protect the stadiums until Tuesday this week, when they were informed that Chippa would take over.

A small Muldersdrift-based security outfit, Interactive Security, also received an ad hoc appointment to guard the four ticketing offices.

After the M&G made further queries, Mkhondo confirmed that the negotiations with Securitas/Stallion had failed and that the OC reserved the right to start negotiations with the “reserve bidder. This is what happened in this case.”

‘We give the guys one day’s training'

The reserve bidder was Chippa Protection Services. Managing director Siviwe “Chippa” Mpengesi told the M&G the company was under “tremendous pressure” to deliver the security services on such short notice. “We received our letter of appointment on Friday [May 29] and started on Monday.”

On whether it was difficult for Chippa to deliver such crucial services in a short period, Mpengesi answered: “Of course. Because of the nature of the contract, we needed to recruit a lot of guards and clothe them … Of course it was a challenge, but it won’t be the first challenge we face.”

But he added that his company did not have the capacity to provide VIP protection services and had outsourced that part of the contract.

According to a company profile Chippa was registered in 2002, has 1 600 registered security guards on its books and is providing security services to a range of education facilities in the Western Cape, as well as to Eskom, Transnet, Metrorail and the police.

Mpengesi confirmed that he had had to hire new guards to fulfil the Confederations Cup tender. “We had people on our database. We also made use of agents. What we did was to give the guys a one-day training on how to conduct security at special events. We are very strong on training.”

Mpengesi said all his guards were registered with the Private Security Regulatory Authority (Psira) and the OC was going to vet them from Thursday. “If they have criminal records, we are not going to use them.”

He admitted to “lowering our profit margin” to be able to provide security guards for the tournament.

He dismissed criticism from industry insiders that his company was inexperienced: “The so-called big companies must accept that we’re in a new era, that things have changed dramatically. They always do that -- when we were awarded a waste-management tender, they lodged an appeal with Cape Town to say we are a small company. We are not small. Our turnover is not less than R7-million a month.”

‘This is shocking’

Institute for Security Studies expert Johan Burger told the M&G on Thursday he was “shocked” that a few days before the start of the tournament security wasn’t in place.

“I know that the organising committee and the police have been planning for these events for the past four to five years. The Confederations Cup is supposed to be a curtain-raiser for the big event. This is shocking to say the least.”

The National Intelligence Agency had to vet all security guards for events such as the Confederations Cup. “To do proper vetting takes at least a few weeks.

“All this means to me is more pressure on the South African Police Service, who already have their hands full. It looks as if somebody was not doing their work here and I’m afraid to say all fingers are pointing at the OC.”

The same New York Times article quoted recent research by the international Grail Research company that found security was still the overriding concern for people considering attending the 2010 World Cup.

Grail’s Kurian Thomas was quoted as saying: “There is general agreement that South Africa is not known to be a very secure country and that there is a higher risk to personal safety than in the rest of the Western world. There are concerns, and it could be a detriment to people going to the World Cup.”

The LOC’s security portfolio is headed by former prisons boss Linda Mti, who left the correctional services department under a cloud. The M&G revealed last year that Mti had been convicted for drunk driving in 1992 and was facing a similar charge to be heard by the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court this year.

Posted

This is going to be on ESPN & ESPN2 here in the states, so I'll be cheering on Team USA for sure. It'll also be cool to see "atypical" teams like South Africa, New Zealand and Egypt that I don't see very often.

Posted

Watched Spain New Zealand (second half anyway). Looked like it was hosted well. I don't know what they had in the crowd but did anyone else think the constant buzzing/hooter noises in the background were really annoying?! It wouldn't stop and was louder than the crowd for large parts of the game!

Posted

Attendances not too great. 52k for opening and 21k for Spain vs NZ.

A good target would be an average of 30-35k.Anything higher would be excellent.

Germany, Korea were about 37k and France around 33k

Posted

As much as I support the tournament one year before the WC, I dont like the teams, that are represented there. ITA, ESP and BRA and RSA (as the host) deserve the place in the Confed-Cup. But NZL ???!!!! It is like Energie Cottbus against Barcelona! Who want to see such a match? My Teams: BRA, ARG, third team form South America and ESP, GER and RUS or TUR from Europe plus ITA and RSA!

@mo: in 2005 there were also empty seats in Germany. So, dont get a headache about that.

Posted

That would kind of defeat the point Goethe! The whole point is to have the regional winners playing each other.

It is contested by the winners of each of the six FIFA confederation championships (CAF, CONMEBOL, UEFA, AFC, OFC, CONCACAF), along with the FIFA World Cup winner and the host country.

Not including New Zealand would be like deciding that if Barnsley win the FA Cup, they shouldn't get the UEFA Cup place they've earned. Whether many people would want to watch Barnsley in Europe is completely beside the point. They've earned their place in the same way the bigger teams in Europe have.

Same with New Zealand in the Confed cup; they've won their regional tournament so deserve their place in the cup as much as Spain do for winning theirs.

Posted

Possibly, but until they are the winners of the Oceania Championships deserves their place in the Confederations Cup as much as anyone else.

Posted

Brazil edge past Egypt

Two goals from Kaka ensures all three points in thrilling clash

A Kaka brace helped Brazil get their Confederations Cup campaign off to a winning start after they defeated a plucky Egypt team 4-3 in a thrilling encounter.

The game burst into life as early as the fifth minute when Kaka delicately flicked the ball over two defenders before slotting under the onrushing Essam Al-Hadari in the Egypt goal.

The Egyptians were level four minutes later when a cross from the right evaded Lucio in the middle to allow Mohamed Zidan to steal a yard on Dani Alves at the back post and head home.

Brazil regained the initiative when Luis Fabiano met an Elano free-kick from the right at the near post and saw his effort sneak into the far corner of Al-Hadari's goal.

The South Americans made their aerial superiority pay again eight minutes before the interval when Elano whipped in a corner from the right for Juan to power a header into the back of the net to make it 3-1.

Egypt weren't perturbed and highlighted Brazil's weakness at the back when Mohamed Aboutriaka headed over when unmarked on the penalty spot.

Comeback

If Brazil thought they had escaped the worst of it, then they were badly mistaken. Egypt began the second half brightly and pulled goal back after 54 minutes when Mohamed Shawky finished off a fine passing move with a well driven strike.

Brazil seemed shocked as they gave the ball away straight from the resulting kick-off and Egypt made them pay as Zidan cut through the ropey Brazilian defence all too easily and fired past Julio Cesar at his near post.

But the Africans undid all their good work when Lucio had his goalbound effort cleared off the line by Ahmed El-Mohammadi's outstretched arm in stoppage time.

The midfielder was duly sent off by referee Howard Webb - with the help of his assistant - and Kaka dispatched the penalty to get Brazil out of jail in the dying seconds.

Posted
That would kind of defeat the point Goethe! The whole point is to have the regional winners playing each other.

It is contested by the winners of each of the six FIFA confederation championships (CAF, CONMEBOL, UEFA, AFC, OFC, CONCACAF), along with the FIFA World Cup winner and the host country.

Not including New Zealand would be like deciding that if Barnsley win the FA Cup, they shouldn't get the UEFA Cup place they've earned. Whether many people would want to watch Barnsley in Europe is completely beside the point. They've earned their place in the same way the bigger teams in Europe have.

Same with New Zealand in the Confed cup; they've won their regional tournament so deserve their place in the cup as much as Spain do for winning theirs.

Rob, i dont agree with your comparison. Barsley has beaten much stronger teams on the way to the FA-final. So they deserve the UEFA Cup-spot. But NZL has beaten Fiji or Tonga! Wow! I guess even Andorra, Lichtenstein or the Faroe Islands are better teams.

No, I dont want to see them and I think they are not improving their game by getting beaten 5:0.

Posted

The point of the confederations cup is that all the confederations' champions play in a tournament. That's a good, simple concept and it shouldn't be messed around with or over-complicated in my opinion.

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