 The South African Football Association (Safa) would like to praise the Confederation of African Football (Caf) for the noble decision in endorsing the re-election of incumbent Fifa President, Joseph ‘Sepp’ Blatter for the fourth term.
President Blatter is a true friend of the continent as shown by his unwavering support for the 2010 World Cup which he gallantly fought for to be held on African soil for the first time in the history of the competition.
Regardless of ‘prophets of doom’ who applied pressure to President Blatter to re-consider his decision to have the FIFA World Cup played in Africa, the astute Fifa president stood firm and needless to say, the pessimists who see nothing positive about this continent were proven wrong.
The unwavering support by President Blatter to have the first FIFA World Cup played on the African soil has had massive positive spin offs for the whole continent.
- The FIFA World Cup brought in about a refurbishment of modern infrastructure across the continent
- It created millions of jobs across the continent especially in the tourism industry. Africa has some of the most fascinating tourist attractions in the world and the 2010 FIFA World Cup helped in marketing these attractions
- The 2010 FIFA World Cup also worked as a tool to re-brand the continent and showed the human race that Africa was ready to do business with the rest of the world and
- For the first time in the history of Africa, the continent was united by the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The 2010 brought pride on the continent and ALL Africans walked tall for taking the centre stage during the months of June and July.
We at Safa have always believed in President Blatter’s wisdom and leadership and are happy that CAF’s 53 members last Monday in Cairo unanimously endorsed his fourth bid for this office.
We wish him all the best during the forthcoming voting that will take place in Zurich on June 1, 2011.
Kirsten Nematandani
Safa President |
