Africa: Obama One of 450,000 Expected at World Cup
JOHANNESBURG – President Barack Obama has tentatively accepted an invitation to attend the opening ceremony of the 2010 World Cup here next June, Joseph Blatter, the president of FIFA, said Monday.
“He accepted,” Blatter told a small gathering of reporters here. “But you know that heads of state are extremely busy. Hopefully his schedule will allow him to attend.”
A visit by the American president – especially one whose father was born in the African nation of Kenya – would lend an additional measure of credibility and cachet to the World Cup, the world’s largest sporting event, which is being hosted in Africa for the first time and which faces significant challenges in terms of security, transportation and lodging for the 450,000 expected international visitors.
The American president is extremely popular here. Several times, an American reporter, asked where he is from, and replying that he is from the U.S.A., has then been asked, “How’s Obama?”
Obama has also lent his support to an effort by the United States to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.
(goal.blogs.nytimes.com)
Tags: South Africa