South Africa did not ask for $100 million FIFA cash injection claims Jordaan

May 11 – FIFA took the decision to inject $100 million (£67 million) into the budget of this year’s World Cup in South Africa without being asked for it, officials there claimed today.

Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the local organising committee, denied that they had been forced to ask for the cash because of financial problems.

Earlier, the FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke had told the BBC that they had given South African organisers $100 million after concerns were raised about the quality of some of the training venues there.

“We have enough money to deliver the event,” Jordaan told the Associated Press.

“As far as the budget is concerned, I reconfirm what we said, that we have more than 67 per cent of the budget intact and to be spent.”

The investment will take South Africa’s projected spending on the delivery of the World Cup to $523 million (£350 million).

That does not include the billions the country has spent on stadium and transit infrastructure.

“We know we had to add some money for the team base camps where some teams were unhappy about the level of the services or the level of the pitches,” Valcke said.

“It’s the first time ever that FIFA has worked this much with a local organising committee.”