South Africa hikes budget for 2010 World Cup outlay

The South Africa government has decided to increase by 181 million dollars the budget earmarked to meet the organizational costs incurred by the hosting of the 2010 World football Cup contest.

• The South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel told reporters that the budget hike was dictated by the sky-rocketing building materials’ prices on the national and international markets.
• He also indicated that an additional one million dollar package had been assigned to cover the expenses deriving from Internet access on all the projected sporting facilities which are, he said, well on track to meet FIFA requirements and deadlines.
• In this connection, officials from world Football authority FIFA and the 2010 local organizing committee have just concluded a 10 – day inspection tour of South Africa’s World Cup stadiums, praising the overall construction status.
• The inspectors represented various areas, ranging from stadium technical teams to security, competitions, hospitality, ticketing, media, marketing, TV and IT.
• They expressed great satisfaction during their inspection tour at the tremendous construction progress, but also at the remarkable level of planning in and around the stadiums.
• A FIFA official said he was confident that South Africa’s 10 new stadiums would be “amazing football jewels” in the 2010 World Cup.