While the president of CAF, the African soccer federation, has been arguing for a single bid from the continent to increase the chance of success, Danny Jordaan said South Africa is better prepared than the rival Morocco to host the prestigious event. He said he would be holding talks with the Moroccon government in an attempt to get the North African country to drop its plans to host the prestigious tournament.
He said South Africa had the infrastructure and experience and exceeded Fifa's requirements to host the event. He pointed out that South Africa had successfully hosted major international events, including the Rugby World Cup, the African Cup of Nations, the Non Aligned Movement conference and the All Africa Games, building up a wealth of experience in this area.
Fifa's technical evaluation team is due to visit South Africa next month and the host country for 2006 is to be announced in Zurich, Switzerland in July.
While South Africa's World Cup bid has cost the country about $ 8 million US, if it was successful the games would inject at least $5 billion US dollars into the country's economy, Jordaan said.
The tournament had the capacity to create at least 129, 000 jobs and contribute 2 percent to the Gross Domestic Product.
The chief executive officer of South Africa's bid committee for the 2006 Soccer World Cup has told the South African Cabinet that he is extremly confident the country will be awarded the event, the Pan African News Agency reports.
