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Mossel Bay Municipality

MEDIA STATEMENT

DATE  :  6 JANUARY 2010

MUNICIPALITY STILL HOPEFUL OF ATTRACTING A 2010 TEAM

The Mossel Bay Municipality remains hopeful that it will still be able to attract a 2010 World Cup soccer team to establish its base camp in Mossel Bay after Paraguay has announced that it plans to switch its base camp to another area, says the Municipality in a statement.

The teams have until 15 February 2010 to finalise the venues for their base camps and the Municipality is still in contact with the Paraguayan authorities to convince them to change their decision on relocating their base camp. The Municipality has in the meantime also started making enquiries about other teams who have not finalised their base camps yet, with a view to attracting them to Mossel Bay should the negotiations with Paraguay fail.

Paraguay announced that they would no longer locate their base camp in Mossel Bay after the Paraguayan head coach, after their visit in early December 2009, indicated that he was not happy with the camber of the practice pitch that is under construction in Extension 23 at present. He also indicated that the facilities at the hotel in which they were to stay do not meet the team’s requirements.

All undertakings with regard to the pitch up to the visit have, however, been met and the pitch was on schedule for completion to FIFA specifications by March 2010. This is well before the arrival of the 2010 teams in South Africa towards the end of May 2010.

It appears that a miscommunication between the president of the Paraguayan Soccer Federation, who received the monthly progress reports and the coach may have resulted in the latter being under the impression that the pitch would be ready as a playing surface by the end of November 2009.

According to local FIFA representatives and other experts, Mossel Bay is well ahead of many other towns regarding the preparation of training venues to meet FIFA standards. Although an issue was made of the camber of the pitch, local FIFA representatives have indicated to the Municipality’s consulting engineers that the camber at the time of the Paraguayan visit was within FIFA’s parameters.

Ongoing maintenance of the pitch will continue with the final camber being 0,6%, the same as the new Cape Town Stadium where Paraguay will play their first match against Italy on 14 June 2010.

The Municipality has in the meantime provided the Paraguayan soccer authorities with a detailed pitch management plan. The Municipality has also invited Paraguay’s coach to visit Mossel Bay at the Municipality’s cost to have further discussions with him.

The hotel contractually had until the end of April 2010 to install additional facilities and meet certain conditions required by the Paraguayan soccer federation.

As everything was on track as agreed with the Paraguayans, it therefore begs the question whether there were reasons other than those given by them for the change in their plans.

Should the Municipality fail to attract a 2010 team to Mossel Bay, it is confident that the town will still benefit from the 2010 tournament as it is likely that supporters of the George-based Japan and other teams based in the area will come to Mossel Bay for accommodation if there is, as expected, a shortage of accommodation in the other towns. Many supporters also tour the host country during World Cup tournaments and Mossel Bay is expected to benefit from that as well.

Whether or not teams come to Mossel Bay, the Extension 23 pitch will remain an asset and a legacy of the 2010 World Cup tournament which will benefit local soccer players for many years to come.

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