The Federation of International Football (FIFA) profited over 2 billion US dollars from the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said here on Monday.
“We kept under control the cost of the World Cup. It cost a bit more than 1.2 billion US dollars to organize the World Cup in South Africa. We made an income of 3.9 billion US dollars and this means that we get quite a large level of positive results,” Valcke said.
The South African Football Association (SAFA) president Kirstin Nematandani also expressed his gratitude to FIFA for having faith in South Africa and ensuring that the 2010 World Cup left huge benefits for the country.
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South Africa was given 100 million US dollars from the tournament’s profits. This amount will be managed by the FIFA Legacy Trust and be used to benefit local football development programmes. “All our fifty-two FIFA regions will be receiving cars. We purchased about thirty-five buses and the committee is planning to buy more buses for each region to have its own bus.
“The FIFA Legacy Trust is another very exciting project which will focus on issues of development. The profits that were amassed from this World Cup will certainly be put into great use to promote grassroots football in our country,” Nematandani said.
Local Organizing Committee (LOC) Chief Executive Officer, Danny Jordaan, also present at the press briefing said he was excited that South Africa managed to host a successful World Cup. He said every African country has received up to 550 thousand US dollars as a direct benefit from the World Cup profits.
The LOC board members have now been reduced to three as the committee prepares to round up its operations and hand over all the 2010 World Cup legacy projects to the South African Football Association.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup was held in South Africa from June 11 to July 12.