Copyright Sunday Times online:
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimes/sportst/sportst1042118771.asp
'Nigerian World Cup will defy critics'
LAGOS (AFP) - Despite scepticism at home about Nigeria's bid to host the 2010 World Cup, a top bid committee official said the country has everything to make a success of staging the soccer finals.
World football's governing body Fifa has said that in 2010, for the first time, an African nation will host the sport's most prestigious and potentially lucrative event.
Nigeria is heading a joint five-nation West African bid to host the finals, along with Cameroon, Ghana, Benin and Togo, but faces competition from South Africa, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Morocco.
And even within Nigeria, many critics say the frequently unstable country does not have the infrastructure and organisational ability to take on such a mammoth event.
But the head of Nigeria's bid committee for the event, Segun Odegbami, insisted: "There is a lot that is good about this country and as such we should not allow the negative things to becloud us. We should not condemn ourselves."
"First of all, we have the basic and functional facilities to host the championship," the former international star said.
"We hosted the Junior World Cup in 1999 and thereby gained a lot in terms of experience by so doing. We also have a football tradition which some of the other countries bidding for the same competition don't have."
"We deserve to give ourselves an opportunity to host the biggest sporting event in the world," he added.
The committee bid boss also said that the huge cost of organising the World Cup would be defrayed by the profit it will generate, unlike other such events like the African Nations Cup and the All-Africa Games which the country has hosted at a loss.
"The World Cup is one event which guarantees you profit, no matter how much you have invested. You cannot say the same for competitions like the Nations Cup and the All-Africa Games, which Nigeria has staged in the past," Odegbami argued.
The 50-year-old sports promoter also said the private sector would fund the championship as against the usual practice where government was the main financier for major sporting events.
The 12-man West African bid committee will be inaugurated in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Friday.
Last year Nigeria's attempt to host another renowned global event, the Miss World beauty pageant, collapsed after Muslim anger over the supposedly immodest event triggered three days of sectarian riots which left 220 dead.
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