SOUTH AFRICA: FOOTBALL / SOCCER - Zuma says World Cup shows South African football has come a long way

Record ID: 453556

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: FOOTBALL / SOCCER - Zuma says World Cup shows South African football has come a long way
  • Date: 7th June 2010
  • Summary: PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA (JUNE 6, 2010) (REUTERS) PHOTOGRAPHERS AROUND THE FIFA TROPHY CLOSE UP OF TROPHY WIDE OF SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA ADDRESSING MEDIA WITH FIFA PRESIDENT SEPP BLATTER SEATED NEXT TO HIM (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA SAYING: "Today marks just four days before the kick off of the FIFA 2010 World Cup for the first
  • Embargoed: 22nd June 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAC325I31UWARKHM35PW5KTR3G1
  • Story Text: South African President Jacob Zuma said on Sunday (June 6) that hosting the World Cup shows how far the country has come.
    South Africa is the first African nation to host the world's most watched tournament which begind on Friday (June 11) with a match between the hosts and Mexico in Johannesburg.
    "Today marks just four days before the kick off of the FIFA 2010 World Cup for the first time in the African continent," Zuma told a news briefing at the presidential palace in Pretoria.
    "We've come a long way in football development since the first football match was reportedly played on the 23rd of August 1862, at the site of what is now the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town," he said.
    Former President Nelson Mandela led South Africa out of apartheid in 1994 but the country remains divided in many respects, with most of the country's wealth still in the hands of the white minority and some communities still split along racial lines.
    Officials hope the tournament will have the same effect as the image of Mandela -- who spent 27 years in jail under apartheid -- did when he famously handed over the rugby World Cup trophy to captain Francois Pienaar in 1995 wearing his Springbok jersey.
    Zuma said he hoped that Mandela, who turns 92 next month and is increasingly frail, would be able to attend the opening match of the tournament.
    "I know very well that he is passionate about this tournament, he has said on his own he would love to be there. Whether he would be there on the day or not, I think that depends entirely on former President Mandela, he will take the decision," he said.
    "If he appears, we would be very happy, even if he didn't appear we understand so there is absolutely no big thing about it, but if he is there it would be a bonus for this tournament indeed, we wish he would be there."
    FIFA President Sepp Blatter said the World Cup would leave a legacy for the whole continent through football development and education projects.
    "Bringing the World Cup to Africa, to South Africa, is to trust South Africa, to trust South Africans, to trust Africans, and to say to them you are strong, you can do it, and you can stay there and this is something for the legacy," he said.
    "Africa can be proud, and Africa can stand, and as an organiser of the biggest event of the world."
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