S. Africa to host over 2,000 journalists for 2010 World Cup

More than 2,000 journalists from around the world will be able to cover the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa through an International Broadcast Center, a South African official said on Tuesday.

The host city of the center will soon be announced, deputy finance minister Jabu Moleketi told a press briefing in Pretoria, capital of South Africa.

He said one of the three possible cities, Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban, had already been eliminated and the remaining two were asked for some additional information before the final decision was made.

He would not say which two cities were still in the running but said an announcement was expected very soon, the SAPA news agency reported.

The International Broadcast Center is the temporary home for journalists from around the world who cover the Soccer World Cup.

Moleketi said the one in South Africa would host over 2,000 journalists that would provide television coverage as well as radio, newspaper and the internet.

During the World Cup journalists would be collecting stories from throughout the country, sending them to the International Broadcast Center from where it would be fed to the world.

During the 2006 Soccer World Cup in Germany the broadcast center in Munich hosted 120 television and radio channels that broadcast images and reports of the World Cup to the 190 countries around the world.

Moleketi said Johannesburg's Soccer City would be the venue for the final with the new Green Point stadium in Cape Town and the new Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban hosting the semi-finals.

The nine host cities will each host some of the first round matches with Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria, Rustenburg, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein hosting a game each in the second round.

The quarterfinals would be played in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Port Elisabeth, with the play-off for third place taking place in Pretoria.

South Africa, the first African host of the world soccer extravaganza, plans to build 10 stadiums, five of which are to be newly built in the nine host cities.

Moleketi said work on all the stadium projects had started and that 1.9 billion rand (275 million U.S. dollars) from next year's budget would be brought forward to October this year as the "tempo of construction" increase.

He said some of those stadiums are likely to be finished ahead of time.

Source: Xinhua