Libya May Pay for South Africa's 2010 World Cup Bid

[Thomas Flannigan]

Today's London Financial Times has a fascinating article about Libya's bid for the 2010 World Cup. Most interesting is Moammer Gadaffi's plan to back South Africa if he feels Libya cannot win. Libya has plenty of money.


http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1035873134324&p=1014747092418

[ursula]

Dovetails nicely with the elder Gadaffi's push to become one of the main statesmen in Africa. The road to that acceptance goes through South Africa as he well knows. Hmmm... some may interpret my sentence above as cynical, but it isn't.

What's also interesting here is that the African countries that are bidding, SA, Libya, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, and possibly Tunisia. Three or four North African countries with one of them saying that if their bid appears to be losing they will l throw their support not to another northern country but to the main southern bidder. (I don't really think Nigeria's bid will go to far though they will try.) I find it difficult to imagine that Egypt and Morocco can make a viable joint bid as they are so far apart and if so they are then competing with each other.

[Thomas Flannigan]

I can't imagine Nigeria getting the Cup. They have enough money to stage it but there is a little problem with getting out of the airport without having "officials" shake you down for 30 per cent of the cash on you. Then there is the 3-4 hour ride into the city and lots of crime. You can't cross the street in Nigeria without bribing somebody. The Nigerian visa was one of the toughest I have ever gotten.
I asked my wife about hosting the Cup in Africa and she said: "Are they out of their mind? Morocco is the only place you could have something like that."
Morocco probably won't get it because there is an undeclared economic war against Islam, and there is sure to be opposition to giving such an event to a Muslim country. That leaves South Africa. I am sure the empty stadiums will look nice on TV, even worse than Korea.
Just my opinions.