INSIDER World Cup Diary - CONCACAF's Secret Date with 2018/2022 Bid Nations

(ATR) The nine teams bidding to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 will today present their case to a special congress of CONCACAF’s 41 members in South Africa.

This includes its three influential FIFA Ex-co members – Jack Warner, Chuck Blazer and Rafael Salguero – who will have a crucial say when FIFA decides where the tournaments will go on Dec. 2.

But the meeting in Johannesburg is clouded in such secrecy that a CONCACAF spokesman last week denied to INSIDER it was even taking place. He later confirmed – after bid teams had themselves confirmed to INSIDER about their presentations – that an "unofficial" congress was taking place.

Why such elusiveness? What is there to hide?

Probably not much and it may well just have been a case of crossed wires, but the general lack of transparency concerning the bid process during the World Cup has already given rise to conspiracy theories.

Thursday’s 60th FIFA Congress, for example, is open to accredited media, but a bidding expo that is taking place afterwards – apparently along similar lines to that staged in Cape Town in December – is not.

No one knows why, but invariably some think the worst. Jokes about bid teams stockpiling supplies of brown envelopes are already doing the rounds among cynical journalists.

Certainly FIFA’s rules of engagement for the bid nations are shrouded in secrecy and some confusion still exists about what they are allowed to do among bid teams.

When asked about the rules of engagement at yesterday’s press conference, FIFA chief Sepp Blatter referred the question to secretary general Jerome Valcke, who in turn said that the FIFA Ethics Committee are responsible for the rules.

He did, however, reveal that three members of each bid team have been granted official observer status so that they can see how a World Cup operates – and what they might be letting themselves in for in eight or 12 years time. But beyond that he could offer little clarification, merely saying that there was "a fair balance between what they can do and what they cannot do".

Johannesburg's traffic chaos

A fairly superficial tour – admittedly mostly from behind the wheel of my hire car – of Johannesburg these past 48 hours reveal the "Johannesburg is Ready" billboards adorning the sides of highways to be a little incongruous. Little seems to have changed in the six months since I was last in this sprawling city of suburbs, slums and traffic jams.

The most worrying aspect, given the city’s almost complete reliance on cars and buses to get around, is the way that road improvements have ground to a halt.

On the 40km journey from my lodgings to the east of the city, past the airport, through the centre of town and back out to Soccer City, venue for the World Cup final, no more than 15 per cent of the route has been upgraded.

Potholes, incomplete roadworks and epic congestion combine for nightmarish journeys even outside rush hour.

Quite how Soccer City and Ellis Park will cope on matchdays remainsto be seen – for there are no express lanes even for FIFA officials.

The written media’s job has not been made easier by the decision to locate the main press centre at Soccer City – around 30km drive from Sandton, where many reside.

There are media shuttles – although shuttle is perhaps the wrong word given the habitual traffic jams.

Despite promises to the contrary, accreditation was outsourced from the FIFA HQ in Sandton to Soccer City and Ellis Park, meaning many wasted a half day traveling to and from the World Cup final venue.

The Soccer City accreditation is a vast tent, located on a dustbowl carpark outside the stadium. Confusingly, stadium volunteers and press had to register at the same place, causing more confusion outside and further annoyance.

Happier news is that the stadium concourses look ready even if the carparks are not.

But as I left the accreditation centre a pile of tar sat steaming away on the dirt. Alas, there was not a shovel in sight.

Blatter misses out on book purchase

When he held his press conference at the Sandton Sun Hotel yesterday, had Sepp Blatter decided to take the short walk from his luxurious hotel suite at the Michaelangelo Towers through the sumptuous shopping mall that links much of Sandton, the FIFA president would have been greeted by a most unwelcome sight.

For in the window of the mall’s book store was a pile of its football bestsellers – and at the very top of this stack he would have been horrified to see "Foul" - Andrew Jennings’ bestselling expose of FIFA’s "secret world" of "Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals".

Quite what Blatter – or indeed the hordes of FIFA Congress delegates who will descend on Sandton this week – will make of South Africans’ interest in this remains to be seen. But it may encourage some of its more wayward members to think twice about engaging in the kind of excesses that Jennings so brilliantly uncovered when writing his book.

World Cup in numbers

51 - number of days it would take the 43% of South Africans who live on less than $2 per day to save up and pay for the foot-high Zakumi, the Lion Mascot toy seen on sale in Sandton City.

Blatter watch

At the news conference following the FIFA Executive Committee meeting yesterday afternoon, Blatter was in relaxed mood after an apparent show of "unity" from his fellow committee members.

The tricky question of ticketing was referred to Jerome Valcke, who caused some amusement among assembled journalists with a comical frown. Blatter seemed so at ease with proceedings that he even took time to sample the complimentary nougat left on his table.

Weather in Johannesburg

Tuesday - a high of 20°C expected

My last bit of retail therapy in London last week entailed walking around like a lunatic on the hottest day of the year looking for somewhere that would sell me a jacket warm enough for the South African winter.

And my first bit of shopping on arriving in Johannesburg? Buying sunblock, of course. The weather was an unexpected and glorious 20°C on Monday. But it's cold enough at night to still need that new coat.

Withreporting from WFI's European correspondent James Corbett inJohannesburg (james@worldfootballinsider.com)

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