2010 Soccer World Cup was made for Morocco, Daily Telegraph

London, Feb. 19 - British daily “Daily Telegraph” criticized the decision of FIFA to award the 2010 World Cup to South Africa, a country that faces serious infrastructure and security problems.

Highlighting the problems that hinder South African preparations to host the international football’s quadrennial jamboree, the paper stresses under the headline “2010 World Cup was made for Morocco” that “while FIFA were right to give Africa a World Cup, the folly of overlooking Morocco is becoming increasingly apparent.”

Morocco’s candidature had the lot, notes the daily, citing the kingdom’s assets, notably its proximity to everywhere - notably Europe, which supplies the majority of traveling fans at World Cups — than South Africa, and both safe and sound.

However, Morocco lost the vote, deplores the Daily Telegraph, underlining that the fears that the rainbow nation will be unable to deliver its crock of gold are unlikely to be assuaged by last week’s assurances from his successor, President Thabo Mbeki, that its electricity crisis will not affect the most important soccer event.

The paper notes that there are daily power cuts, some of several hours’ duration, in host cities, while reports indicate that there is no chance of new generating facilities being built before 2016.

The Daily Telegraph wonders how the safety and comfort of millions of football tourists can be anything like guaranteed, in a country where there is already concern over an obstinately high level of street crime, is hard to discern.

The most likely beneficiaries of an African withdrawal would be Germany, where the carnival of two summers ago could simply be reconstructed, concludes the Daily Telegraph.

(Source: MAP)