2010. Is South Africa ready ?

The chief executive of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Dr Danny Jordaan, has a lot on his plate at the moment.

So how is he feeling?

"I am feeling the tension," he says.

"But it is an extremely exciting time ahead of the World Cup draw - I am always on the go."

Preparations on track?

"We are happy with the state of World Cup preparations," he says, seated amongst the flowing plants of the plush lobby.

"Most of the construction of stadiums is now complete, and work on the perimeter of stadiums is now being carried out.

"We feel comfortable that everything at stadiums will be ready early next year, in fact we are now testing stadium capabilities, for example there was a game in Durban at the weekend."

When Fifa carried out its assessment report of progress following the Confederations Cup this summer it gave South Africa an overall rating of 7.5 out of 10.

"We are expecting roughly 450,000 supporters from around the world to come to South Africa next year, and we know they need a bed to sleep in and transport to and from venues," he says.

"The World Cup draw on Friday will help us to fine-tune our accommodation and transportation.

"Once the fixtures are revealed we will know what is required in each venue city. For example the demand to see North Korea play New Zealand will be less than for an England game."

However, he says that the organising committee has already decided it needs 1,000 more buses and 200 more aircraft.


Budget review

The organising committee had previously estimated a budget of 3.2bn rand (£263m, $431m) to run the World Cup, but he now admits they are "probably 10% over what we envisaged as our budget".

"We have been impacted by the global economic circumstances like everyone," he points out.

"We have to look at the budget further and carry out a final review, and are now engaged in that, but it does seem that there will be some budget over-runs."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8387006.stm