SPORTS> Off the Pitch
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SPORTS> Off the Pitch
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S.Africa to launch 2010 World Cup emblem
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-06-02 09:34 South Africa, host of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, will officially unveil an emblem of the tournament in Berlin, Germany on July 7, local organizers announced on Thursday. The launch before the end of this year's World Cup in Germany is a first in the history of the tournament, said Danny Jordaan, CEO of the South Africa World Cup committee. This will be followed by a concert in the German capital on the same evening and later South Africa will also unveil their African Legacy Program -- a new venture in that for the first time a hosting World Cup country will attempt to make the event one of total continental involvement. The aim is make it a truly African affair, Jordaan told a media briefing in Durban, the SAPA news agency reported. Representatives of South Africa's nine host cities convened a forum in Durban on Thursday, aiming at consolidating all resources as the 2010 World Cup organizational program takes shape. The meeting confirmed that at this stage there was full co-operation throughout South Africa with regard to the management and presentation of this major sporting event in which the financial implications already far exceed anything ever achieved at World Cup tournaments over the past 100 years, said the SAPA report. The Durban Host Cities Forum was the last before a delegation of South Africans leave for Germany to study the structures in place for the 2006 event to give them a feel of what will be needed in South Africa over the next four years. Jordaan pointed out that agreements for 10 venues had been completed with nine cities and these had been submitted to FIFA, the world soccer governing body, and subsequently confirmed by them. A most frequently asked question about South Africa's hosting of the prestigious event was whether it would be commercially viable. |
