2010 briefing: Media walk out
2006-11-21 15:58
Johannesburg - The media, including numerous representatives of the international press and television, walked out en bloc from a briefing due to be staged on Tuesday afternoon by the Board of Directors of the local 2010 World Cup Organising Committee.
The walk-out, which will impart embarrassingly world-wide on the Organising Committee's ability to organise without glitches the 2010 tournament, was agreed on when none of the Board members had arrived for the briefing a matter of 70 minutes after the stipulated "1pm sharp" starting time at the plush Westcliff Hotel in Johannesburg.
Local Organising Committee Communications manager Tumi Makgabo said she had made three attempts to establish the reasons for the non-appearance of the Board members, who included chair Irvin Khoza, CEO Danny Jordaan and Fifa secretary-general Dr Ernst Linsi, but had only learnt "they were involved in a meeting of their own at the hotel."
"We have become accustomed to this kind of thick-skinned arrogance and disrespect towards the media," said one local soccer journalist, "but we had hoped matters would change once the World Cup operation swung into gear.
"Apparently this is not the case," he added.
The remnants of the media, who were packing away cameras and other equipment a matter of 90 minutes after the phantom briefing was due to commence, had still not been given an official explanation for the non-appearance of Khoza, Jordaan and company.
When a member of the LOC's marketing company was asked whether the members of the 21-man World Cup Board of Directors were "having lunch", the response was that the query could not be confirmed or denied "because we don't know ourselves exactly what is happening."
Later it was hinted that discussions were in progress regarding important issues that had to be resolved before a statement was made to the media.
"But why didn't they take this into consideration before the haphazard organisation took place?" was a question that remained unanswered.
Similar confusion emerged a month ago before the LOC's initial briefing on how the organisation of the World Cup was progressing, with half the media only informed of the session at the last-minute and the other half not at all.
"This kind of shortcoming will not happen again," said Khoza at the time.
Famous last words, it seems.
- SAPA