South Africa 2009

[Rafa]

I don't see why CT to Jhb would be a big issue?

Its one of the top 5 routes in the world.

Both airports are completing their new terminals by 2009. Both airports basically doubling their capacity.

In addition 1000 buses will provide inter city and dedicated services. That excl. existing train services and BRT services.

What "financial" issues do we face?

We certainly do face accommodation issues but we face them without the use of cruise ships. If need be FIFA can bring in more cruise ships to CT, Dbn and Johannesburg with two harbours in CT and two harbous in Durban to accommodate them if need be. Our accommodation capacity is suitable to the demand pre and post 2010. I don't see why we have to double hotel room capacity if we don't need them post 2010. Even for the Olympic Games, I would never suggest Cape Town build 20,000 rooms just to meet IOC requirements when other solutions exist.

As I've said before transport is a long term project. Each host city has presented FIFA with detailed operational plans for the World Cup which in many cases are unrelated to services provided during the Confed Cup since services like "Gauride" were simply temporary solutions to the taxi fiasco eventhough BRT stations outside venues were complete.

The summary of the host city operations plans can be found here: http://www.transport.gov.za/content_sub.aspx?ssID=111

As always the progress of most major projects can be found at

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay...amp;forumid=378

FIFA's 7.5/10 was spot on.

[Victor Mata]

I have the impression that the "ability density" of the teams in football is getting more and more close to each others, therewith it is getting more and more likely that so called "non-football-nations" trip so called "football nations" during WC...

Yes. We were commenting yesterday that the US and other teams are getting more and more tactical and that our team relies more on individual techniques of the players rather than actual strategic team play. This can be troublesome since players like Robinho love showing off their "football art" even at the cost of missing goals. A particular example of this I-wanna-be-a-lone-star behaviour was the other players ignoring Elano's screaming to receive the ball. The same happened to Kaka... We're very critical about our team.

I feel sorry for any fan that will have to travel from Cape Town to Johannesburg.

Is it because of the distance or just infrastructure? If distance is the big problem then I'm even more sorry for the fans who'll have to travel from and to Manaus in 2014. It's about 3 hours away from the closest host cities Cuiabá and Fortaleza by plane!!!!!

Is it that big concern for larger bidding countries?

[Rafa]

Cape Town and Johannesburg's Airports are probably the best in Africa, a top 5 route in the world, each with rail or bus services to the City Centre and with excess capacity due to the major expansions.

South Africa has an existing well developed inter city bus system which is quite extensive, and excludes any top up services provided through the acquisition of 1000 Mercedez Buses.

We also have inter city rail which connects Cape Town to Johannesburg which is quite decent e.g Shosholoza Meyl. With suitable additional services and trains this will be an absolute bargain and a beautiful trip. You will arrive from Johannesburg in an upgrade Cape Town station, the first upgrade in over 30 years. Within easy walking distance of the main transport hub to connect spectators to the stadium, waterfront and surrounds. The Long Distance Terminal is also at Cape Town Station.