The man at the head of making the 2010 World Cup in South Africa happen, Danny Jordaan, is in New York City to calm nerves over South Africa’s readiness to host that tournament. Earlier this week he was interviewed by the New York Times‘ George Vecsey. To his credit Vecsey reminds his readers that “… Just about every major sports tournament around the world is dogged by tardiness, incompetence, graft, repression, you name it. The tear gas from civil unrest had barely been cleared before the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, and they were a success. The trolley lines and expressways had barely been opened in Athens in time for the 2004 Summer Games. “And we finished half an hour before the first game,” Sunil Gulati, the president of the United States Soccer Federation, said about the 1994 World Cup in the U.S.’
Jordaan–in jest–also has a strategy for dealing with unruly fans from “unspecified nations”:
Then there is Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit, which Jordaan said is only 15 minutes from Kruger National Park, a game preserve near the Crocodile River. Asked about potential hooligans from unspecified nations who might act out during the World Cup, Jordaan smiled and said they would be housed near the lions and tigers in the game park. Right away, I felt greatly reassured about security at the next World Cup.
Filed under: sports , Danny Jordaan, FIFA, football, football hooligans and the 2010 World Cup, Mbombela Stadium, soccer, South Africa, sports, World Cup 2010, World Cup stadiums
