SOUTH AFRICA: SOCCER - South Africa honours 32 nations participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup

Record ID: 452285

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: SOCCER - South Africa honours 32 nations participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup
  • Date: 20th November 2009
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAMEROONIAN AMBASSADOR, KUM G. BEZENG, SAYING; "South Africa's shown it before, everything is in place and South Africa carries the aspirations and hopes of Africa, they cannot fail. We cannot fail." PUPPETS AND CROWD OF PEOPLE IN BACKGROUND (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRAZILIAN AMBASSADOR, JOSE VICENTE DE SA PIMENTEL, SAYING; "I'm rooting that this will be the best World Cup ever. It's very important that the World Cup is now being hosted by an emerging country, a country from the south. Things are changing in the world scene and this is one of the proofs that the countries of the south, the emerging countries, are becoming more and more important." FIFA LOC OFFICIALS IN PHOTO OPPORTUNITY WITH 2010 MASCOT, ZAKUMI (SOUNDBITE) (English) FIFA LOC CEO, DANNY JORDAAN, SAYING; "Well we always said that if this is to be truly an African World Cup then African teams must stay till the end. The best that we've done is the quarter-finals slot, with Cameroon and Senegal, and now we see we have quality, we look at the under-17, under-20 editions of the World Cup on the continent, Ghana won the under-20, Nigeria in the final. I hope that the senior World Cup will follow the example of the junior World Cup." FLAGS OF THE VARIOUS PARTICIPATING NATIONS FLYING AT FULL MAST MORE OF FLAGS WITH CROWD BELOW
  • Embargoed: 5th December 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVALQ8YB0HEVTB7EQJ62854QZTS
  • Story Text: Flags of the 32 countries who have qualified for the 2010 World Cup are raised in Johannesburg.
    South Africa's FIFA 2010 World Cup organising committee on Thursday (November 19) welcomed the 32 nations that have qualified for the tournament in a flag-raising ceremony at its Johannesburg headquarters.
    Ambassadors and embassy representatives from the 32 countries raised their flags outside SAFA House, metres away from the Soccer City stadium which is due to host the first and final matches of the World Cup on June 11 and July 11 2010 respectively.
    Various ambassadors expressed their respective nations' excitement at participating in the first World Cup to be hosted on African soil.
    "We're very excited to participate in this wonderful event and can't wait to get our team here and we're going to look forward to seeing Bafana Bafana playing the US in the finals of the World Cup." said American ambassador Donal Gips.
    Cameroonian representative Kum G.Bezeng exhibited enthusiasm and faith in South Africa's capabilities in hosting the world's biggest sporting event, as did Brazil's Jose Vicente de sa Pimentel.
    "South Africa's shown it before, everything is in place and South Africa carries the aspirations and hopes of Africa, they cannot fail. We cannot fail." Bezeng said.
    "I'm rooting that this will be the best World Cup ever. It's very important that the World Cup is now being hosted by an emerging country, a country from the south. Things are changing in the world scene and this is one of the proofs that the countries of the south, the emerging countries, are becoming more and more important," Brazil's de sa Pimentel said.
    FIFA Local Organising Committee CEO, Danny Jordaan, said he hoped the six African teams that will be representing the continent will perform well to truly display that this is indeed an African World Cup.
    "The best that we've done is the quarter-finals slot, with Cameroon and Senegal, and now we see we have quality, we look at the under-17, under-20 editions of the World Cup on the continent, Ghana won the under-20, Nigeria in the final. I hope that the senior World Cup will follow the example of the junior World Cup," he said.
    With close to 200 days remaining to the commencement of the World Cup, stadia in South Africa's nine host cities are either complete or nearing completion.
    According to information provided by the Local Organising Committee over 650,000 tickets have already been sold and close to half of those are in the hands of South Africans.
    The draw for the finals will be held on December 4 in Cape Town.
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