JOHANNESBURG, Feb 11: South African soccer officials are hoping a successful cricket World Cup will enhance their chances of bringing football’s equivalent to the country in 2010.

Irvin Khoza, chairman of South Africa’s 2010 bid committee, said he was confident the cricketing spectacle would prove both the organisational capacity of the country and that it was a safe place to host the soccer World Cup.

“One of the big problems we had when bidding for the 2006 World Cup was the perception that South Africa was unsafe for visitors and the crime rate was out of control,” Khoza said.

“I’m confident this cricket event is going to show that the country is perfectly safe for visitors. The high rate of tourism is already showing this to be the case.” he said.

South Africa narrowly lost out on hosting the 2006 World Cup finals to Germany but are now favourites in an all-African bid for 2010.

South Africa are bidding against Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria and Tunisia. The hosts for the 2010 World Cup will be decided next year.

“The cricket World Cup also shows the great capacity we have, both in terms of infra structure and in terms of our organisational capacity,” Khoza said.

“It has also shown that fears over ticket sales are unfounded. You can’t get into a cricket match over the next two months. They are all sold out and that is something that FIFA are going to take notice of. If we get the 2010 World Cup, I’m confident the same will happen.

“This (the cricket World Cup) is going to go a long way in helping our chances for 2010,” Khoza added.

Cricket officials had invited FIFA president Sepp Blatter to Saturday’s opening ceremony at Newlands but were told his schedule was too full.

“But we will certainly make sure that on our visits to the key FIFA members we tell them about the cricket World Cup and its success,” Khoza said.

He added that South Africa’s chances had already been boosted by the World Summit held in Johannesburg last year.

“That was a massive world event with leaders from over 100 countries and it went off without a hitch. That was also very important for our bid.”—Reuters