Fifa Calms Accommodation Fears
World football governing body FIFA has confirmed that there will be enough accommodation for visiting supporters at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke said a target of 55,000 so-called ‘bed nights’ for an estimated half-a-million visitors in June and July 2010 had been reached.
Said Valcke: ‘Accommodation is now a non-issue. We have got the bed nights we feel we need to accommodate the people, based on the estimated numbers that we are expecting.
‘We are sure now to accommodate all the potential requests we will receive whatever the demand.’
Valcke’s comments came after growing fears that the host nation – the first African country to stage the World Cup Finals – had not yet convinced everyone that it had enough rooms or sufficient transport for fans at the finals.
In response to the issue over transportation, Valcke stated that MATCH Services, FIFA’s official travel agent, would help transport supporters across South Africa due to the lack of rail services in the host nation.
He stated: ‘We are renting planes, big aircraft like Airbus 340s and Boeing 747s.’
