If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

FIFA confident about 2010 World Cup preparations

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said he was confident that South Africa would be ready to stage the World Cup in 2010 despite concerns over delays in the building of new stadiums. He said the remaining five stadiums would be finished by October 2009. With the exception of Cape Town’s stadium, which is involved in a planning dispute, Jordaan said building work was expected to be under way on all sites by the first quarter of 2007.

The executive committee has now finalised the dates for the World Cup finals which will take place between June 11 and July 11, 2010.

It also confirmed that the allocation of World Cup places to the continental confederations would remain the same as for the 2006 World Cup with 13 qualifying places available for European nations and five available to African countries.

South Africa flag