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FIFA has taken out $650 million insurance against the 2010
and 2014 cups being postponed or relocated, but insists that
preparations for the 2009 Confederations Cup and 2010 World
Cup in South Africa are on track, and that it is confident that the
global financial crisis will not affect the next two World Cups.
“There has always been an insurance policy for World Cups (for)
natural or non-natural catastrophe or any event that could lead
to the postponement of the event to another country from South
Africa… but we are on time to deliver the Confederations Cup
[this year] and 2010 World Cup in South Africa,” FIFA general
secretary, Jerome Valcke said at a news conference in Zurich.
He stated that taking out insurance was standard practice and
did not indicate a lack of confidence in the local organising
committees.
In a statement, FIFA said that it had received a detailed analysis
of the potential impact of the global financial crisis. According
to this analysis, FIFA had not suffered any losses and was well-
equipped to withstand the current crisis thanks to a number
of factors, including “diversification of its financial assets; low
exposure to currency fluctuations; the fact that 95 per cent
of the 2007-2010 income budget is under contract; good cost
management; and the diversity of its portfolio of commercial and
TV partners”.
The statement said that FIFA had taken out insurance as had
been the case for all World Cups since 1998.
The $650 million cover was for postponement or relocation of
the 2010 and 2014 tournaments. The policy provided cover
against terrorism, natural disasters, epidemics, war, accidents or
turmoil.
In order to protect the welfare of the players, with regard to the
2010 World Cup, FIFA’s executive committee decided that team
members should play their last club matches on 16 May, 2010 at
the latest. A mandatory rest period will be in place from 17-23
May, 2010.
The final of the UEFA Champions League -- scheduled to be played
on 22 May, 2010 -- will be the only exception to this rule.
FIFA said that the executive also had agreed to announce the host
countries for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups simultaneously.
In an article on preparations for the 2010 World Cup, South
African web site,
football365.co.za
, stated that the global
credit crisis coupled with slowing domestic growth and higher
prices for building materials was causing projected costs to seem
conservative, “a situation that could place a massive burden on
the taxpayer for decades to come”.
“As the cost of borrowing money from the world’s financial
institutions heads for stratospheric heights, economists claim
SA could struggle to raise the necessary funds for massive
infrastructure projects promised ahead of the World Cup,” the
web site said.
After South Africa’s cabinet received a report, on 23 October
Global Financial Crisis Could
JeopardiseWorld Cup
2008, on World Cup preparations, cabinet spokesperson Themba
Maseko said that the construction programme for the stadiums
was on track to meet all FIFA deadlines although cost escalation
“remains a challenge”.
On 21 October last year, South African finance minister Trevor
Manuel, in a medium-term budget policy statement to parliament,
said that an additional 8.8 billion Rands (about $US880 million)
was to be given to municipalities to help with the costs of
preparing for 2010. Manuel made adjustments to the country’s
medium-term budget plans against the background of the global
financial crisis.
An additional 5.4 billion Rands will go to alleviate the effects of
inflation on operational and capital spending programmes and
there will be an extra 3.4 billion for the municipal costs of the
building programme. Of this amount, 835 million Rands will go
to public transport and 497 million Rands to add to the existing
budget for stadiums.
To host the event, South Africa is upgrading five existing sports
stadiums and building a further five. The FIFA World Cup 2010
will be played at 10 venues in nine cities.
Maseko said that the cabinet had been told that South African
telecommunications giant Telkom’s upgrade of its core fibre optic
network was progressing according to plan.
The Public Transport Infrastructure Support programme was
being implemented with most infrastructure already under
construction.
Power utility giant Eskom has guaranteed that construction of
stadiums and the football tournaments would not be adversely
affected by any power outages, and safety, security and disaster
management plans had been completed, Maseko said.