Be proud, Visa tells Confederations Cup organisers

Visa, FIFA's exclusive financial services partner, congratulated FIFA and the local organising committee, its financial institutions and merchant clients, and the four cities across South Africa for staging an excellent FIFA Confederations Cup 2009 saying it had set the stage for a successful 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Hard work and dedication

"The organisers of the FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009 should be proud of the results of their hard work and dedication. They have staged a great event," said Charles Niehaus, Visa's GM Southern Africa. "We are delighted to have been part of it and look forward to helping South Africa stage a successful 2010 FIFA World Cup.

"As a sponsor, we have been thrilled by the level of engagement and excitement shown by our client banks and merchant partners in supporting the FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009. Together we promoted the tournament across 11 countries, dressed up thousands of merchant locations, installed a dedicated ATM network and electronic point-of-sale acceptance devices at competition venues and ran cardholder promotions designed to help people across Africa experience the passion of the event. Like many others, we were using this tournament as a test for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and it has surpassed our expectations, both on the field and off. We very much look forward to doing it all again next year, but on a much bigger scale!"

Eleven months and counting ...

"We also want to extend congratulations to the Brazilian team on their impressive win in the Confederations Cup South Africa 2009. We wish all of the teams that competed success as they continue to prepare for next year's FIFA World Cup. We're just over 11 months from the kick-off of the FIFA World Cup and, like everyone, we can't wait."

For more:

• IOL: South Africa ready for World Cup - Blatter... He says there's no doubt the ‘technical premises' will be ready and South Africans can be very proud of the success of the Confederations Cup. He also says the issue of half-empty stadiums will be addressed.
  
• Guardian.co.uk: Africa could get more World Cup places one day - Blatter… The FIFA president says he will push for the continent to have more places in future tournaments, if African teams do well in 2010.
  
• IOL: Let's be fair and give credit where it's due… Rodney Hartman doffs his cap to Sepp Blatter, for a job well done.