S.Africa and FIFA praise World Cup legacy

The 2010 World Cup has changed the world’s view of Africa and created a wave of optimism on the continent, FIFA President Sepp Blatter and South African President Jacob Zuma said on Monday.

Speaking just over six months after the kick-off of the June 11 to July 11 tournament, Zuma said the World Cup had contributed to national pride, built African solidarity and improved South Africa’s global reputation.

“A new era of Afro-optimism has swept across the continent and the world,” he told journalists.

“Africans have always believed in themselves. Now the world believes in them too. The World Cup contributed a great deal to this change of perception.”

Blatter praised the “psychological impact” of the tournament both on South Africa and the rest of the world.

“We trusted South Africa. You trust people and they get confident,” he said.

Blatter and Zuma met at Johannesburg’s iconic Soccer City stadium, the venue that hosted the tournament’s opening and final matches.

The meeting comes as South Africa looks back on the football extravaganza half a year later with a mix of soaring national pride and regret that the economic windfall fell short of expectations.

The World Cup created a surge of patriotism as South Africa defied pessimists’ predictions of a crime-plagued organisational nightmare to host a tournament that was widely applauded for its spectacular venues and the absence of major glitches.

But the 310,000 foreign visitors fell about one-third short of original expectations, and the 521 million dollars foreign fans spent while in the country amounted to just over one-tenth of the 33 billion rands (4.8 billion dollars, 3.6 billion euros) the government spent preparing for the tournament.

Gleaming new stadiums in smaller host cities like Nelspruit and Polokwane have largely sat empty since the end of the tournament.

But Zuma said the World Cup had increased economic growth by one percentage point and created a lasting legacy by boosting South Africa’s global image.

“Besides the economy, we proved to the world that we have the capacity to build (this kind of infrastructure),” he said.

“There was a great deal of marketing for our country.”