Fifa gives Bay 2010 stadium the nod

A high-powered Fifa delegation braved the cold and rainy weather on Tuesday to conduct their second inspection this year of the 2010 Soccer World Cup stadium in Port Elizabeth – and gave the project the thumbs up.

The technical delegation was accompanied by the Local Organising Committee, led by chief competitions officer for the LOC, Dennis Mumble, who is originally from Port Elizabeth.

The visit by the Fifa delegation was to ensure that agreement between the LOC and Fifa regarding requirements for the stadium were being adhered to.

Briefing the media after the inspection, Mumble said the inspection had been mostly technical.

“We are so far quite pleased with what we have seen. We are encouraged by the progress made. Everything is on course,” he said.

However, as always happened with such “massive” projects, there were areas of minor concern.

In this case, the use of certain spaces within the stadium were questioned, but the matter was being resolved, he said.

Fifa 2010 head of media operations, Alain Leiblang, said they had found “good” solutions to some of the problems which had been encountered.

“We had a very interesting meeting here today. We are pleased it is going fine.”

Leiblang said several meetings would be held with the local media, culminating in a South Africa media day, which would be held in Port Elizabeth.

The group started their inspection tour in Johannesburg on Monday at Soccer City. On Tuesday, before coming to Port Elizabeth, they toured Greenpoint Stadium in Cape Town.

On Wednesday, the delegation will visit Durban where they will have several meetings in preparation for the holding of a preliminary draw for the World Cup. The draw will be held next month.

The Herald

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