Voilà les raisons de la publication du rapport technique da la FIFA:
Last week Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu went to Trinidad. Such visits by the great and good would be unremarkable except that the reason for Mandela's trip was to make sure that South Africa win the right to stage the 2010 World Cup. FIFA have already decided that the event must be held on the African continent and when the race opened a year ago South Africa, who had lost the right to host the World Cup in 2006 by just one vote to Germany, seemed a shoo-in. But in the last few months Morocco have put up a spirited campaign, securing the support of Michel Platini, the FIFA executive member from France, and of the French government. Therefore, South Africa can no longer be certain of winning the vote. My reading of the situation is that Morocco probably have 11 or 12 votes. They need 13 to win - hence the Mandela visit to the Caribbean. Mandela went to try to ensure the backing of Jack Warner, the FIFA executive member from Trinidad, who controls three votes on the 24-man executive. Four years ago when the 2006 decision was taken, Warner was a strong supporter of South Africa and brokered a deal which saw Brazil drop and out and promise all three South American votes for South Africa. But this time, for various reasons, Warner is less than happy with South Africa and Mandela went to attempt to win him back. We shall know next Saturday in Zurich when the FIFA executive vote whether Mandela has worked his magic. But that he went all the way to Trinidad shows how tight the race is. On Tuesday South Africa received a boost when the FIFA inspection report ranked the country first, ahead of the four other contenders, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. The inspectors said that South Africa "has the potential to organise an excellent World Cup". They said that Morocco "has the potential to organise a very good World Cup". They added: "However we do have some concern that three stadiums presented to the 2006 inspection group in February 2000 as under construction have not been realised at all." This, on the face of things, is damning but how far it will affect executive members is debatable. One executive member I spoke to said: "The technical report is a guide. Members look at it but that is not the sole basis for the vote." Nobody doubts that South Africa, the biggest economy in Africa, who have hosted the rugby and cricket World Cups, can stage the football event. However, Morocco have cleverly presented themselves as being the best Africa location for European teams and also played on their Arab heritage. The argument is that backing Morocco would not only mean them staging the first African World Cup, but also the first Arab one. Morocco have the important support of Mohammed Bin Hammam, the FIFA executive member from Qatar, who has promised large sums of money from the Middle East to build the necessary infrastructure.
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