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South Africa wants 2010, Brazil wants 2006 |
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July 5, 2000
ZURICH (AP) - The German delegation bidding to host the 2006 World Cup remained upbeat Tuesday, despite an apparent deal between Brazil and South Africa to tie up the next two competitions.
"Everything is done. We did our homework and FIFA has confirmed that we are in the first place in the technical ranking," said spokesman Wolfgang Niersbach.
The 24 FIFA members will decide on the location of the 2006 event Thursday. FIFA president Sepp Blatter is openly backing South Africa, while England and Morocco are also in the hunt though are considered outsiders.
Speaking on the anniversary of the first time Germany won the World Cup, in 1954, Niersbach said the Germans were surprised but not worried by Brazil's sudden decision to withdraw from the race on Monday.
"We can't understand it because they worked so hard for two years. It's unusual to withdraw so close to the decision," Niersbach said.
Brazilian Soccer Confederation chief Ricardo Teixeira said Monday that Brazil had agreed to give its backing to South Africa, which would in turn support Brazil for the 2010 event.
But Niersbach said Teixeira could not guarantee the other two votes of the South American soccer confederation, Argentina and Paraguay.
"He is not the president of the confederation. Maybe it's his personal opinion, but it's high risk saying that now. From our point of view it's ridiculous," he said.
Horst Schmidt, general secretary of the German soccer federation, said it was a "pleasing development" that FIFA's technical report on the bidding countries had ranked the nations.
The report said that Germany and South Africa were "very well qualified," while England was "well qualified." Morocco and Brazil - which was ranked before its withdrawal - were described as "qualified."
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