Soccer: A decade on, South Africa insists World Cup worth investment

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CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Thursday marks 10 years since South Africa hosted a World Cup highly charged with symbolism but dogged by questions about the wisdom of spending billions on a sports event that might have been better used elsewhere.

Hosting the first soccer World Cup in Africa was seen as a coming of age for the embattled continent.

“There was never money taken away from the delivery of essential services. The money that built the World Cup was always intended for new infrastructure,” Jordaan told Reuters in an interview. “There was the sentiment that Africa did not have the capacity and that it couldn’t be trusted. We were under so much pressure to deal with the world’s negativity, but after the World Cup, we saw a lot of that Afro-pessimism end.”

 

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