Cabinet is concerned that South Africans are not buying tickets for the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup and Confederations Cup, government spokesman Themba Maseko said on Wednesday.Briefing the media after Cabinet's regular fortnightly meeting, he said the executive was pleased that sales were proceeding well.
"However, Cabinet shares the concern that South Africans [are] not purchasing the tickets."
The concern was that the stadiums would be filled by soccer lovers from other parts of the world with very limited South African participation.
Extra measures would have to be put into place jointly with the local organising committee (LOC) to ensure that the Confederations Cup later this year and the World Cup finals were marketed to South Africans, he said.
The interministerial committee needed to interact with the LOC in the next two weeks to review all communications and marketing plans to ensure enough marketing was done.
"My own sense is that not enough money has been set aside by the LOC to market these two tournaments to South Africans and the host cities themselves are not doing enough to do this marketing."
This had to be attended to as a matter of urgency by government, the LOC and host cities, as well as the sponsoring companies.
"We need campaigns basically; campaigns to market the tournaments to South Africans," Maseko said.
Only 20 percent of Fifa Confederations and 2010 World Cup tickets sold so far had been purchased by South Africans, LOC head Danny Jordaan said on Tuesday.
Source : Sapa /jk/gj
Date : 04 Mar 2009 16:01
