By Mawande Jack

TOMORROW is D-Day for Port Elizabeth to know whether it will be one of the host cities for next year‘s Confederations Cup soccer tournament.

South Africa‘s 2010 Soccer World Cup organisers postponed the announcement a week ago, amid fears that the city had fallen behind a stadium construction schedule due to labour, health and recruitment issues.

A report by the World Cup government unit revealed that the metro faced the risk of losing its spot in the tournament because it could not meet the completion deadline, which was set for December 2008.

Last month, Local Organising Committee chairman Irvin Khoza said while Port Elizabeth was still one of the five venues, there were still strict requirements that needed to be met.

The outstanding issues include the numbering of seats and the availability of accommodation. Nelson Mandela Bay municipal spokesman Roland Williams said construction of the 50000-seat Nelson Mandela Bay stadium is expected to be completed by March next year.

A Fifa delegation would make its final inspection of the facility, that will also be used for the 2010 soccer World Cup tournament, in December this year.

“We are more than ready to host both the Confederations Cup and World Cup. All our preparations which include stadium development, transportation network, accommodation, entertainment, marketing, information technology, safety and security and health are in place” said Williams.

The other Confederations Cup venues are Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Rustenburg.

South Africa, defending champions Brazil, plus Egypt, Iraq, Italy and the United States have qualified for the 2009 event, with the other slots to be filled by the Euro 2008 winners and New Zealand or New Caledonia.

Source: The Herald