26 July 2010

FIFA’s team of World Cup inspectors are now in Australia, the third country in their round the world trip to

look at prospective FIFA 2018 and 2022 World Cup venues in eleven countries.

 Four of these – Spain and Portugal plus Belgium and the Netherlands are linked in double bids – the others Australia, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Russia, England and the United States are hoping to host a World Cup tournament alone. The head of the five-man delegation is Harold Mayne-Nicholls, who for a number of years has carried out a great deal of development and assessment work for FIFA. Last week after visiting Japan for three days, the first stop on the global inspection circuit, he told a news conference: "The way the bid committee and the JFA [Japan Football Association] prepared everything shows the professional way in which football is developing here, and the way in which they work and develop projects. “Concerning Japan’s bid, I think it is a very balanced project mixing football traditions, new stadiums, new technology, eco projects and integration with the world – it includes everything." Harold Mayne-Nichols, is currently president of the Chilean Football Federation and of the Chilean Professional League (ANFP). During his period as president he has helped transform the organisation of the game in Chile and the prospects of the national team have improved significantly. The Coca-cola FIFA rankings, the Chilean national team has risen from 53rd position in April 2007 to 10th position following the latest post-world cup rankings. Japanese bid committee chairman Motoaki Inukai said that he was pleased with the outcome of the visit. He added: "Time was limited, but I am pretty pleased that we were able to show that our stadiums and infrastructure meet all international standards, including environmental aspects, and the whole country is behind the bid.” However, the competition in Asia looks strong and after leaving Japan Mayne-Nichols also lauded South Korea's "well-structured'' bid to host the 2022 World Cup. As well as the capital Seoul, the team toured Daegu, Ulsan, Goyang and Incheon and also found time for dinner with president Lee Myung-Bak on Friday evening. "Despite the short amount of time that we stayed, we could check all we needed - training sites, hotels, convention centres, stadiums, airports, new technology,'' said Mayne-Nicholls, who also believes co-hosting the 2002 World Cup with Japan helped South Korea to stage the 2022 edition outright. "After eight years, I was able to see the legacy of the World Cup is not only in the stadium but seems to be in everybody in this country,'' he added. "The iconic fan-fest site in Seoul plaza is not only a tradition in Korea but also all over the world. Everywhere we went, the people are really passionate about football. Coming back to the stadiums, the maintenance of them gave us a good impression and the passion for the game seems to be growing every day.'' Bid chairman Han

Sung-joo was pleased with the inspection. "They came here to verify our ability, will and preparedness to

host the 2022 World Cup. I hope and trust that they did just that,'' he said. "They asked the right questions,went to the right places and met the right people. I trust that they got the right answers to their questions,which will help them prepare the most accurate report of their inspection.'' South Africa’s 2010 head Danny Jordaan is part of the FIFA World Cup inspection team. When asked whether he had received an offer to join FIFA in a senior full-time capacity, he replied: “No comment.” Australia, the third stop on tour of the countries, was cleared of wrongdoing last week by FIFA. The body said it reviewed allegations that expensive gifts were provided to some FIFA Congress delegates in May 2008 -- eight months before official campaigning began -- but decided there were "no grounds to open a formal case." At the end of the inspection tour, the delegation will submit a report to assist FIFA's 24 executive members select a host for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup tournaments, which will be announced by FIFA on December 2 in Zurich.{jcomments on}

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