CAPE TOWN, Jan 23: South African cities due to host the 2010 football World Cup Tuesday complained of funding shortfalls of billions of rand to build stadiums for the continent's biggest sporting event.

Estimates had swelled due to inflation, exchange rate fluctuations and rising input costs linked to shortages of skilled manpower and building materials, officials told a parliamentary sport committee.

“There is a big funding gap,” Cape Town's 2010 administrator Mike Marsden told parliamentarians.

“While host cities will be engaging in all ways possible to reduce the gap, there will still be a residual gap that we have to engage (national) treasury about.”

Cape Town alone faced a shortfall of about 1.258 billion rand (nearly 180 million dollars) in secured funding.

The price for a new stadium for the city had escalated from 2.5 billion rand to over 3.7 billion rand, largely due to what Marsden described as extravagant construction tendering.

Construction of Cape Town's Green Point Stadium has to start by March.

Ten stadiums in nine South African cities are set to host the 2010 football extravaganza, with Cape Town hoping to get one of the semi-final matches.—AFP