FIFA chief urges workers not to wreck World Cup

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DURBAN, Nov 24 (AFP): FIFA president Sepp Blatter urged South African construction workers Saturday not to wreck the 2010 World Cup, saying the successful staging of the tournament lay in their hands.
As uncertainty continues to swirl about the rate of progress on the 10 venues that will host the tournament, Blatter paid a personal visit to the Moses Madhida Stadium in Durban which is to host one of the semi-finals and chatted directly with construction workers who have recently ended a strike.
"I told them that they are the real workers, stone by stone," said Blatter, who was serenaded in Zulu by some of the workers during his walkabout.
"If they don't work on that basis, then the realisation of such a work, and I am not speaking about just one stadium but the whole World Cup" will be placed under threat, he added.
"If they do not work, we can speak here for hours and come back every year and nothing has happened."
Construction was halted for nearly a fortnight earlier this month by a strike in Durban while workers have also downed tools in recent weeks at stadiums in Cape Town and the northeastern city of Nelspruit.
Unions had threatened to expand the strikes to cover all World Cup construction projects before a deal on pay and conditions was reached last week.
Blatter said that Durban was ahead of schedule but senior FIFA officials have acknowledged that there are concerns that other stadiums, including in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, are slipping.
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said Friday Port Elizabeth could lose the right to be one of the hosts of the 2009 Confederations Cup, the traditional warm-up for the World Cup, although no decision would be made until early next year.