Morocco question FIFA conclusions
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Reuters) -- FIFA's assessment of the five African countries bidding to host the 2010 World Cup is riddled with discrepancies, the chief of Morocco's bid committee claims.
Saad Kettani, president of Morocco's World Cup 2010 Bid Committee, said he was disappointed at several conclusions reached in the report
Morocco are ranked third behind South Africa and Egypt and the successful bid will be announced after a FIFA executive meeting in Zurich on May 15.
FIFA, world soccer's governing body, published its technical assessment on Tuesday after its inspection team visited the five bidding countries.
Kettani said: "I can say we are a bit angry because there are many discrepancies in the report.
"I urge FIFA executive committee members to read the factual part of the report and ignore the subjective conclusions at the end. I am confident that Morocco can host an absolutely fantastic World Cup."
South Africa, which lost out by one vote to Germany in the race to stage the 2006 finals, is facing strong competition for 2010 with Tunisia and Libya also vying for the hosting rights.
Representatives from Morocco, South Africa and Egypt are in Kuala Lumpur to present their bids to the Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) executive committee on Friday. Asia has three votes on the FIFA Executive.
Kettani said the bare facts of the evaluation report show that Morocco fulfils all FIFA requirements when it comes to stadiums, finance, health, security, government support and enthusiasm for the tournament.
Best bid
However, he said the conclusions reached by the five-man inspection team led by Belgian Jan Peeters failed to tally with the factual evidence.
"If you look at facts only, it is clear that we have the best bid," said Kettani.
"We are the only candidate that fulfils all FIFA requirements. I can't believe that this has not come out in the conclusions."
Kettani said the report concluded that Morocco was lacking in stadiums though the facts show it has three completed stadiums, it has three under construction and another three are to be built should it win the bid.
"How can they say we are lacking when we are already ahead of the other countries?" said Kettani. "When Japan and Korea first bid for the World Cup they did not have any stadiums ready."
The bid chief said Morocco also has the strongest case in financial terms, a fact highlighted by the FIFA report.
He said Morocco's bid committee deposited $160 million in escrow into Credit Suisse account on September 30 2003 to cover potential losses.
This means the FIFA grant usually given to host countries would be placed in a "Football Without Frontiers" fund, together with money from private sponsors, for African humanitarian aid.
Kettani is also unhappy with the report's comments that Morocco would not leave a post-World Cup a legacy as well as suggestions that Moroccans lacked enthusiasm for soccer.
"They talk about South Africa and how symbolic it is 10 years after apartheid," said Kettani. "Yes, that is good. But they fail to talk about how we see the 2010 World Cup not as a Moroccan World Cup but as an African World Cup.
"The fact that we will set up a fund to help Africa in health, education and fight poverty I think is a good legacy.
"I congratulate the inspection team for carrying out their work with transparency and efficiency but I don't know how they reached some of their conclusions," he said.
