2010 World cup in South Africa already success

The 2010 World Cup soccer tournament to be staged in South Africa is already a commercial success thanks to huge international sponsorships secured, an official said.

South Africa has already financially outperformed its 2006 World Cup counterparts in Germany, Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the event's Local Organizing Committee, was quoted as saying.

He added that the tournament would create unprecedented opportunities for small business enterprises, as the visiting soccer fans would be spending an estimated 9.8 billion rand (1.48 billion US dollars) throughout the country.

Jordaan said all 2010 World Cup projects in South Africa were on course, due to "hard" behind-the-scenes work by the organizing committee, which includes four national cabinet ministers, high profile business leaders and representatives from various other sectors of society.

Jordaan urged South Africans to start learning a few foreign languages, so they could help to make visiting soccer fans feel at home. He also confirmed that a complete list of matches and venues would be available six months before the start of the tournament.

He noted there were strong indications that most South Africans would be able to watch 2010 matches on their cellphones, due to sophisticated technology which would be introduced in the country, to coincide with the event.

However, he said that the committee's international media publicity campaign for 2010 would only be launched in earnest after the completion of the 2006 tournament in Germany.

Earlier this month, Jordaan said South Africa had signed contracts with five major companies to participate in the World Cup. But he did not elaborate.

South Africa are predicting that over 400 000 people will go to South Africa in 2010 to watch the World cup. Riding on the back of the Football World cup Suth Africa are bidding to host the 2011 Rugby World cup.