Posted in News on Nov 20, 2007.
Amongst the large band of media people who will be present at the draw on Sunday evening, will be kaizerchiefs.com who are the only South African Premier Soccer League Club website to be accredited by Fifa to attend the draw.
On Tuesday morning a kaizerchiefs.com journalist was amongst the first members of the media to collect his pass to Sunday’s draw, and managed to catch up with Fifa media operations manager for the 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa Alain LeBlaing who gave kaizerchiefs.com a sneak preview of the state of the art media centre which will officially open at the ICC in Durban on Wednesday and run up until the completion of the draw on Sunday.
European Avalanche
The European media contingent are expected to make up the largest grouping outside of the South African media who will be attending Sunday’s draw, with the final round of Euro 2008 games being played across Europe on Wednesday evening they will be flying into Durban some time on Friday and Saturday upon the completion of their countries Euro 2008 qualifiers. LeBlaing is pleased with the number of journalist attending the draw given the fact that South Africa is further away for most journalists then Frankfurt was for the 2006 Fifa World Cup draw.
LeBlaing added “when I was asked how many journalists to expect I am talking about the written press I said around 350, one must remember that usually your largest band of journalist come from Europe. For the 2006 Fifa World Cup it was far easier for them to get to Germany especially Frankfurt which is a very easily accessible city as they could drive or take a train and be there in rapid time, in such terms South Africa is further away but we have the same kind of numbers coming to Durban for Sunday’s draw then we did in Frankfurt”.
State of the art
With all the worlds leading newspapers, magazines, websites and television stations covering the draw on Sunday evening, it is important for them to have a good working environment. The 1 000 odd members of the media who will be in Durban on Sunday need not worry as Fifa and the South Africa 2010 LOC, have gone all out to make sure that they have the best available facilities to get inform the world exactly who will be playing who in the qualifiers in rapid speed.
LeBlaing further added after affording kaizerchiefs.com a preview of the facility which officially opens on Wednesday, “we have worked hard to ensure that we are able to put together a media centre that can cater for the large number of journalist as well as television crews who will be at the draw. I think that they will be quiet impressed by the set up we have in Durban as this centre is equipped with the necessary technology to help them get the information they need to out as fast as possible”.
