On the problem of numerous African players moving abroad to Europe

On the problem of numerous African players moving abroad to Europe
Our “Win in Africa with Africa” project is aimed at helping smaller nations establish professional or semi-professional leagues, so that players there can also live from football at least to some extent. The African Football Confederation (CAF) has also launched CHAN, a tournament only open to players active in Africa. These two initiatives should prevent African players simply fleeing the continent. But Africa has to organise itself too. To prevent transfers of player under 18, these players urgently need to be registered. Otherwise, we can’t step in and help them.

On the African teams’ chances at the 2010 FIFA World Cup
African players are at least as talented as players from Europe and South America. The only things they occasionally lack are tactics and consistency. It’ll be hard for them at the FIFA World Cup, because there are only six African participants, but there are 18 teams from Europe and South America, so they have an advantage. I do think the world of football would like to see an African team in the FIFA World Cup semi-finals. Remember Cameroon in 1990 or Senegal at the 2002 finals. The FIFA U-17 World Cup has been won five times by African teams, and Ghana recently won the FIFA U-20-World Cup for the first time. African football is coming on nicely, but it can’t keep developing if the best players are always taken away. The African teams now have the opportunity to show what they can do on the field of play.

FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke:

On the state of preparations 48 days ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup
I think if the FIFA World Cup were to start in the next few days, we’d be fine. The training facilities will be finished by the time the teams arrive, and the stadiums are already finished and ready for kick off on 11 June.

On ticket sales
We definitely won’t be giving any tickets away, or selling them at reduced prices. In the last eight days, we’ve sold 200,000 tickets in the fifth and final sales phase. We’re confident that the stadiums will be filled to at least 95% capacity. Even the FIFA World Cup in Germany was not a 100% sell out. However, we should have opened the direct ticket sales points in South Africa earlier. We also started by limiting applicants to four tickets each, but some people want to attend matches with a larger number of friends. We need to bear this in mind for the future. We definitely need to be more flexible. Maybe we should consider ticket centres in the countries whose teams have qualified for the finals. In this respect 2010 is proving a good learning experience for 2014.
source:(fifa.com)