It is now official that the Giyani and Thohoyandou stadiums will no longer host practise matches for World Cup games as announced in 2006 by SAFA. This was revealed by Giyani mayor Doris Mathebula during a FIFA World Cup campaign held at the Giyani community hall in which SAFA’s World Cup executive local organising committee member, Danny Jordaan, was a guest.

“When it was announced in 2006 that Giyani and Thohoyandou stadium would host practise matches, we were all happy … but of course, the World Cup does not belong to SAFA, but to FIFA. There are rules and regulations that govern it, and that is why the plans were withdrawn,” she said.

She told the gathering not to worry, as Giyani had also been identified as one of the centres for fan parks to be erected across Limpopo. “We are busy trying to get the SABC to erect at least two centres here, so there will be no need for you to miss the games,” she said.

In his speech, Danny Jordaan first assured the gathering that the World Cup will never be taken away from South Af-rica. According to him, FIFA has a history stretching over 103 years, during which only 19 games took place, meaning that South Af-rica is a very fortunate country to have won host status within these years.

Danny’s speech focused on the completion of stadiums and the acquiring of World Cup tickets, of which he said the final game had already been overbooked and that those who had not booked yet may not have a chance of securing one. “If you haven’t booked yet, the number of the seats in the final game is oversubscribed. I use the word ‘oversubscribed’ because I don’t want to say that it exceeds the seats in the stadium,” he said.

Jordaan encouraged everyone to buy tickets for the World Cup games and the Confederation Cup that is scheduled to start on June 14. Tickets for the Confederation Cup matches are sold for R70 each, while those for the World Cup start at R140.