FIFA President Sepp Blatter is hopeful that Nelson Mandela will be healthy enough to open the World Cup in South Africa. “We cross fingers that Nelson Mandela ... can realize this dream. And his dream would be to be at the opening of the World Cup. For the time being, he is doing well and we hope that he can do it,” Blatter said Friday at his last regular news conference before the tournament starts June 11 in Johannesburg. “It will be his world cup.” The former South African president, anti-Apartheid campaigner and Nobel Prize winner, now 91, made his last public appearance Feb. 11 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his release from prison. Blatter, who faced questions about South Africa's readiness to host the tournament, added that he was confident the event would be a success and predicted that more than 95 percent of tickets will be sold. FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke, who is responsible for overseeing the tournament, said South Africa was so well prepared it could start the World Cup “tomorrow.” None of the 300,000 remaining tickets will be given away, said Valcke, adding that sales over the past eight days indicated all remaining seats will be sold before the first match. But he acknowledged that “we have to work on our ticketing” after initial sales were sluggish and organizers were forced to cut prices to encourage South Africans to attend. Valcke also said FIFA was pleased that many airlines had scheduled additional flights to bring the 360,000 spectators expected to make their way to South Africa. Blatter brushed off suggestions that as a developing country South Africa was a bad choice to host the World Cup, saying the African continent deserved to host the event because of all that it has given world football. He also insisted the South African team could bring together the country's different ethnic groups, especially if, as he hoped, the home squad reaches the semifinals. But “if they want to go forward in the competition they have to score goals,” Blatter said after Bafana Bafana played a goalless draw against North Korea Thursday. Asked about the risk of the World Cup being disrupted by unforeseen events such as last week's volcano eruption in Iceland, which grounded most European airlines, Blatter said even FIFA “are absolutely without any weapons against that,” despite the $1 billion war chest it has reserved for emergencies. North Korea flew from its Spanish base to Frankfurt for the warmup game. The goalless outcome was no surprise as South Africa, who lacked unavailable Europe-based stars like midfielders Steven Pienaar of Everton and captain Aaron Mokoena of Portsmouth, has consistently struggled to score. Bafana Bafana (The Boys) managed just one goal in a home draw with minnows Namibia last month and it took a sizzling Siphiwe Tshabalala drive to force a similar result away to Paraguay three weeks ago. However, South Africa created most of the first half chances in perfect spring conditions before a crowd of just 600. South Africa will face Asian opposition again next Wednesday when it meets China at the home of Offenbach Kickers in its final international before returning home from a three
