By Tom Degun in London
November 24 – Gary Mabbutt (pictured), the former England and Tottenham Hotspur defender, has spoken excitedly about his role in South Africa’s preparations for the 2010 World Cup.
Mabbutt, whose wife Kathy is South African, was part of the team that successfully bought the World Cup to Africa for the first time told insideworldfootball that his experiences of working on the bid are some of his best memories of a career that included winning the FA Cup in 1991.
He said: “It’s been an incredible journey for the last eight years.
“I was asked to get involved in the South African bid for the 2006 World Cup but of course England was also bidding in 2006 and I was obviously supporting England so I declined.
“But after both nations lost out in the bidding process to Germany, South Africa asked me to come on board for the 2010 World Cup and I was delighted to do so.”
Mabbutt, who played nearly 500 matches for Tottenham in a 16-year spell that lasted from 1982 until 1998, worked with Nelson Mandela during South Africa’s successful bid.
He said: ”I’ve had four years working on the bid culminating in that fantastic moment in Zurich when [FIFA President] Sepp Blatter revealed we had won the bid in 2004 and for the last few years, I have been helping them prepare for next years finals.
“So it has been an incredible journey and highly invigorating to see how the country has embraced the World Cup and World Cup fever and we are now focused on delivering the best and most passionate World Cup in history that is safe and secure.”
Mabbutt is now watching on with interest England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup, which has come under increasing criticism.
He said: “A lot has been said about England’s bid derailing and this and that but I don’t believe that whatsoever.
“England is putting in a very sustained challenge to host the World Cup in 2018 and I believe that they are going about things in the right way.
“There are a lot of extremely good bids for the 2018 World Cup and a lot of stiff competition but I think England is very prepared.
“We’ve got the infrastructure, we’ve got the facilities and certainly the way we going, we are giving ourselves every chance of being pulled out of the envelope [that reveals which country will host the tournament].”
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