At the Home of FIFA in Zurich, Secretary-General Jerome Valcke discussed with journalists the latest on football's showpiece event. Inas Mazhar was there The group was warmly received by FIFA President Joseph Blatter who opened the session by welcoming the journalists, thanking them for accepting FIFA's invitation and explaining the significance of the room where they were gathered in. "This is the meeting room of the 24-man FIFA Executive Committee where we hold our regular meetings and of course with me sitting in the president's seat leading the meetings. "Today, it is Jerome's day (FIFA Secretary- General Valcke) and I'm only a guest. That's why I'm here to welcome you and say a few words. As you can see, your mobiles can't be working here. We're on the third floor underground and we make sure that there are no mobile signals reaching this room in particular, so we are not disturbed when discussing world football's important issues or taking serious decisions." Mr Blatter did not take questions but stressed, "Our focus and concentration for the upcoming months is solely the successful organisation of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. "Accordingly, it is Mr Valcke, the FIFA secretary-general, who will answer your questions concerning the World Cup, because he is now responsible, or the director of the management of the World Cup. You can consider him the CEO of the World Cup." Smiling, Blatter continued. "It is his job now. If it succeeds then he will receive all the compliments and it will be good for him, but if it is messed up then it would be my mistake and everyone will blame me." Blatter then asked the media to believe in South Africa and in its ability to host a successful World Cup. "Let's trust South Africa and give them a chance." Blatter was aware about the ongoing concern over referees. "In two weeks, we have the International Football Board and we'll discuss the new and accurate system for video technology which can help referees make fewer mistakes. Actually referees, it's a non-ending story. The UEFA president Michell Platini is stubborn and against video technology but we will work hand in hand. Before leaving, Blatter confirmed his intention to run for the FIFA presidential elections which is to take place in 14 months. After Blatter's opening remarks, Valcke answered questions, most of which dealt with the World Cup, the latest preparations and the latest problems. "For the World Cup, I can say we are on track. FIFA has still not received Soccer City in Johannesburg, but the deadline for the handover is 15 March. This stadium is the biggest and we expect to start testing the stadium, ticket access, seating and everything. We plan to have two events, one that would host 20,000 and the second with a capacity of 50,000. On the other hand, we�re very impressed with Durban Stadium. It's one of the most beautiful stadiums ever used at a FIFA World Cup." Valcke said there will be fewer people visiting South Africa than previously estimated by the Local Organising Committee, which was 450,000. "I think that figure may be lower, but I have no idea by how much and we know it is all because of the high prices of the tickets, accommodation and transportation. We are trying to help the LOC in different areas. "In ticketing, we have increased ticket allocations for South Africans. We need to make sure we give fans access to the stadiums. We need to provide what fans are expecting, not just hospitality packages. We have moved some category 2 and 3 tickets into category 4 to reach a level of 20 per cent exclusively for the South African market. And you can imagine how much effort and time is needed to make these changes, because a change in categories means changing seating arrangements. I don't want to see an empty seat at the World Cup, and we will never give away tickets for free. We have gotten all unused tickets back from our partners, so we can bring them in the market. We also work closely with our partners to make sure that all tickets will be going to the fans. So far, we have sold 2.1 out of 2.9 million tickets." Surprisingly Valcke seemed to be in favour of the black market when asked whether FIFA was concerned by its existence. "I see the black market is good! It means that it is soldout and that the event is working successfully and that there is a demand for the tickets. It means one is not finding himself in a nightmare because of not finding a ticket!" On travel and transportation, "we are in contact with our partner Emirates and also with South African Airways. Emirates, for example, has decreased the cost for a flight from New York to Johannesburg by 30 per cent and implemented new connections from Amsterdam. Domestically, we have arranged extra flights, so that we can move people whenever we want, day and night." Concerning security, "we have invited the respective chiefs of police from the 32 participating member associations and all the team security officers for a high-level security workshop here in Zurich on 4 and 5 March. It's the first time ever that a sporting organisation has organised such a meeting before an event. What we are facing in South Africa is a low-level crime system, not organised crime. The event itself will be safe, but we cannot secure all of South Africa. Let's be honest, there are so many places in the world which are not secured. For example, there are certain places in my country France, especially in Paris, where I can't walk alone at midnight with my wallet or even a watch. So, it�s all over the world. But in South Africa, we need to make sure that no-one is in danger when moving from city to city or from the stadium to the hotel. We hope that the country will be a different one after the World Cup in terms of security. The talk then moved to refereeing. "Nothing will change at the World Cup. We cannot use the World Cup to test things. It's too late now to change the system. We have been working with our referees for more than two years now and they are the best trios. Plus, there is no proposal in place at the moment which completely guarantees that a switch to another system would be without problems. On 6 March the IFAB (International Football Association Board) will meet in Zurich and, among other things, goal-line technology will be discussed when two systems (Adidas-Cairos and Hawkeye) will be presented. But we also need to wait for the results of the experiment currently in place at the UEFA Europa League. So, we can only discuss this at next year's IFAB in March 2011. Let's make sure that when a decision is made, it's a good one." The round-table moved to future World Cups -- the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2018/2022 editions whose host nations will be announced in December. For Brazil 2014, Valcke assured the audience that it will be a similar event in terms of the number of teams coming from European countries. "So, for the next World Cup, we might even open ticketing centres around the world. We will have learned some good lessons from the organisation of the 2010 FIFA World Cup." And on the possibility of having a European- only bid for 2018, Blatter said, We will not ask the FIFA executive committee to make a decision on having only European countries bidding for 2018. That is up to the associations who are bidding for the World Cup. They need to make up their minds in terms of what they are bidding for. If, in the end, only European associations bid for 2018, then that�s their decision. Still, if all of them bid for the 2018 and if a European country won the bid, then other European countries are finished. They can't go for the bid of 2022; it will definitely go to another continent." That was the end of the 90-minute discussion. But as the secretary-general prepared to leave, Al-Ahram Weekly sought to ask a few more questions involving Africa and Egypt. As always, Valcke was gracious enough to answer. "FIFA is still investigating the Egypt-Algeria incidents. The decisions were expected to be made by the end of this month but were postponed to March. But this delay didn�t come from us; it's because both parties asked for more time to present more documents. But it will end soon. "We heard, as everyone else did, about the recent rumour that FIFA had decided to invite Egypt and Ireland to the World Cup. This will never happen because the World Cup draw has been held with 32 teams and we mentioned several times before that nothing will change until the final match of the World Cup. "Of course when a team wins a continental event three times in a row, you call this team a great team. This is how I see the Egyptian team who has won the Africa Cup three times. I know we'll miss Egypt in the World Cup, but definitely Egypt itself will miss the World Cup. It was Egypt which sent Algeria to the World Cup when they lost the game, not anybody else. But there will be Algeria and other African teams there to represent the African continent and I think they'll do their best. "Hassan Shehata [Egypt's football manager] is a good coach to achieve these victories. You are asking if he could join a shortlist for the best coach award. We didn't have this award until last year but I think this year, FIFA will have the Best Coach award. So yes, why not, he could have a chance. "CAF has not yet decided to move the organisation of the Africa Cup of Nations to odd years instead of even years in order to avoid the clash. The decision has not been taken yet. They are still studying it because they have to consult with Libya, the host of the 2014 edition because if they apply that, then the event should be held in 2013 and the host nation has to approve it. FIFA has not interfered or put any kind of pressure on CAF to make these changes. But I think it will be good for Africa more than for the European clubs because during the years of the World Cup, you have the Africa Cup of Nations at the beginning of the year and then you have five countries taking part at the World Cup. It is very tiring for the teams and even more tiring for the European- based players who play in the strong UEFA leagues." Frenchman Valcke was appointed secretary- general by the FIFA executive committee in June 2007. Married, with two children, Valcke joined FIFA in the summer of 2003 as director of marketing & TV. Before that, he had worked for Canal+ (1984-1997), Sport+ (1997-2002) and Sportfive (2002-2003). The 50-year-old Valcke, who speaks three other languages in addition to his mother tongue French -- English, German and Spanish -- has enjoyed a brilliant career with several companies. He began working for Canal+ as a journalist in 1984 and became assistant director of its Sports Service in 1991. Canal+ then put him in charge of its brand new Sport+ channel in 1997, and he held that post until 2002, when Sport+ became part of the merger that produced Sportfive. He worked as chief operating officer at the new entity for a year, before joining FIFA as director of marketing & TV in June 2003. And like any other person he has his hobbies: reading, music, cinema, and nature, either through playing sport or contemplation. Valcke has huge passion and emotion for the game, although football today is more than a game for him. It's an incredible and unique platform for reaching the largest number of people, and for developing education and health programs throughout the world." Like a lot of French people, Michel Platini and the team from UEFA EURO 84, or, more accurately, from 1982 to 1986, has always been his idols. Today it's Thierry Henry at the international level, following on from Pele, Johan Cruyff, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Didier Drogba and so many others. Valcke's fondest footballing memory is the World Cup in Paris 1998 without a doubt, and Rotterdam UEFA Cup 2000 whereas his biggest disappointment in football was the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the final of the 2006 World Cup in Berlin.
