With Sepp Blatter of FIFA, Jaques Rogge, President of the IOC and Kofi

Annan (talking about sport) as

guests at the first lunch I attended at this year’s WEF, sport is the

fashionable new addition to the WEF’s agenda.

Blatter talked about South Africa in 2010 saying "Germany is already

finished for FIFA" and waxed lyrical about the benefits of soccer for the

continent.

He said "Let’s do justice to the continent which has suffered from

colonialism — and neo-colonialism which now robs it of its best players."

A special foundation with a special fund would be established to help keep

Africa’s players in Africa he said, and privately told me it already had

more than 80 million swiss francs plus the support of various foundations

(including Mandela’s) and of all the sponsors for 2010.

I asked him what he was most worried about for 2010.

"What worries me most is the idea of building stadia in rural areas where

they will not be used again and where it is difficult to get people in and

out with transport.

"We made that mistake in Korea. What worries me is that we must use the

beautiful, wonderful rugby stadia, but we must explain to the people in

rural areas why we use only the main centers so they do not feel left out."

What did not worry him?

He smiled: "That we will have the best World Cup ever, and that it will

unite the people of South Africa in a way that the rugby, cricket and golf

cups could not do properly!"

I asked Rogge if they would ever do what FIFA did and say the next

olympics should be in Africa? He warned we should not compare it to the

World Cup as it was muchy bigger with 19 000 athletes compared to only 600

soccer players and 22 events a day instead of only three. But he did

believe three countries could host it in Africa, namely South Africa,

Nigeria and Egypt.

Peter Sullivan