Cities Compete to Play Home Base to Teams

The cities and regions of South Africa are competing to play a second tour of hosting duties -- this time as temporary home bases for World Cup competitors during the tournament. While Cape Town and the Western Cape in general are already in the sights of many teams, geographic realities may stop some teams from making the region their base.

But the Western Cape was forced to lobby against two factors over which it had no control: altitude and rainfall.

"Some teams are very determined to be training at altitude because they believe they must if they want to win the World Cup final which is in Johannesburg, even though the two semi-finals will be held at sea level," Platzky said at an investor breakfast in Cape Town on Thursday.

Call for 2010 teams to use Cape as home base
Independent Online
November 27, 2009