The world football governing body is pleased with progress to host the Confederations Cup and World Cup in South Africa.

FIFA is confident that South Africa's preparations for the 2010 World Cup are adequate, according to the secretary-general of the world football governing body, Jerome Valcke.

He was speaking to the media after a 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC) board meeting at Safa House, at Nasrec in Soweto, on Tuesday, 8 July.

"As FIFA we are confident that preparations for the 2010 World Cup in terms of transport, security, accommodation and stadium construction are going on very well. We are getting what we need from South Africa in terms of our agreement for the country to host the event."

Soccer City
Valcke was also very impressed by his first visit to Soccer City. The stadium is the venue for the opening ceremony and opening match and finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM.

He was particularly heartened by the commitment of the 2 400 construction workers on site. "On the shirts of the workers here in the stadium it said, ‘I am proud to be building Soccer City Stadium'. And when you are here you share the same feeling the workers have and the same thing they have written on their shirts. You just want to see the first game being played at the stadium."

Valcke said each time he visited the stadium this week, he was amazed at how fast work was progressing.

"Yesterday I saw the first part of the roof going up; and today the second part of the roof was already going up as well. Hosting the FIFA World Cup in South Africa in 2010 will be a unique moment and that is why we must make it happen."

Danny Jordaan, the OC chief executive, who accompanied Valcke on the tour of Soccer City, said: "Soccer City will be the heart of the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM. This is the cathedral of South African football. It's South Africa's Wembley; our Maracana."

It was also noted after the board meeting that by 1pm on Tuesday, 8 July - exactly a week after the volunteer programme for the Confederations Cup was launched - 5 490 people had applied to be volunteers. In total, 5 000 volunteers will be required during the tournament in operational areas such as accreditation, administration, information technology, language support, logistics, transport, media and marketing.

Applications to volunteer are open until 31 August, after which volunteers will be screened, interviewed and selected. Enquiries about the volunteer programme can be directed to the programme's call centre on + 27 0800 52 52 52.

Stadium
Also speaking after the meeting, the OC chairman, Irvin Khoza, said that Nelson Mandela Bay had been removed from the schedule for the FIFA Confederations Cup 2009^TM following a report from the committee's technical team.

"We acknowledge the progress that has been made on the Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth stadium in recent months," he said. "With the complex nature of the construction and erection of the roof of the stadium, however, it was decided that it would be too high a risk to keep the stadium in the FIFA Confederations Cup schedule."

Khoza went on to say the stadium had been one of the "star performers" of the FIFA World Cup construction phase and that it would be "a wonderful venue" in 2010.

Valcke added that a decision would be taken in September on whether another stadium would replace the one in Nelson Mandela Bay.

The metro was to host the Confederations Cup, affectionately known as The Festival of Champions, together with Johannesburg, Tshwane, Rustenburg and Mangaung from 14 to 28 June 2009.

The event, seen by many around the world as a dress rehearsal for the World Cup the following year, will pit eight nations against each other. They are South Africa, Italy, Egypt, Spain, USA, Brazil, Iraq and the winners of the Oceania cup.

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