Fifa boss Blatter claims South Africa was too busy dancing to prepare for World Cup 2010
The president of football’s governing body has criticised the African nation for their slow start, while arguing that Japan and South Korea created too many stadiums
Sep 30, 2012 6:00:00 PM
By Miles Chambers
Sepp Blatter has accused South Africa of being too busy dancing to properly organise the 2010 World Cup.
The Fifa supremo was speaking about the past failings of countries who have held the prestigious tournament, which is next being hosted in Brazil in 2014.
Blatter has revealed that the world footballing governing body had to push South Africa to persuade them to get to work on the upcoming World Cup.
“When we came to Africa, the Africans - they got the World Cup in May 2004 - they were dancing during one year,” he told reporters. “They were just dancing because they got the World Cup!
“Then we had to call them and say, ‘Please, start to work!’ and we had to push a little bit to start to work.”
Eight years earlier, South Korea and Japan had co-hosted the 2002 iteration of the tournament and, although he praised their enthusiasm, Blatter has admitted his disappointment at the vast array of unused stadiums in the East Asian nations.
He added: “In South Korea and Japan they were so eager to organise the World Cup that they could have done two!
“Because they were ready with so many stadiums in Korea and the same number in Japan, in my opinion it was overdone.
“And now, in one of the countries at least, they have some stadiums which are white elephants - this is not the aim of the World Cup.”
