Johannesburg - The chief executive officer of the South African local organizing committee (LOC) of the 2010 World Cup, Danny Jordaan, on Wednesday called on his fellow South Africans to serve the country by supporting the event.

Jordaan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa late Wednesday, that while many South Africans had served in the army under apartheid, the way to serve the country now was to be behind the World Cup.

"This is our opportunity to show the world what we can do. Africa will be judged as a whole from this World Cup. If it is a success, then Africa will be regarded as a success and if it is a failure, then the whole continent will be considered to have failed," he said.

Jordaan, however, dismissed any talk of the World Cup in South Africa not being a resounding success. "We will use this World Cup to once and for all, convincingly show that Africa is capable of hosting the World Cup," he said.

"Africa is hosting three major football tournament next year and the success of each will be considered a success for the whole continent.

"If Nigeria (under-17 world championship) or Egypt (under-20 world championship) fail, people will equate that with South Africa failing."

He said that the elections in South Africa next year and the split in the ruling party ANC would not have any negative effect on the World Cup.

"The World Cup is far too important for it not to be given all effort. Whoever is in charge of the country will ensure that the World Cup goes ahead without any problems."

Earlier, FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke, who was briefed by the LOC during a visit to South Africa said that his organization was confident the World Cup would be a victory for the whole of Africa.

"Africa has the largest communities in several of the European leagues and it is fitting that Africa hosts the World Cup," he said.

The Frenchman said that it was a little bit more difficult for FIFA to organize the World Cup in a developing country like South Africa.

"We need to look at some of the issues that would not be an issue in other countries. For instance, the state of the internet, or transport. These are things we have to look at in South Africa, whilst possibly not thinking about them in European countries."

He said that the World Cup in Africa had set a ball rolling. "We have started change. Football can't save the world, but some of the things it has done are amazing.

"When Palestina played their first international at home, it was just terrific. Of course, football is not in a position to bring peace in the Middle East, but it did bring people together."

Valcke said that they had received a request not to fixture games at the World Cup before or at noon as the players would not be able to perform at their highest level.

He announced that the games at the World Cup, for which ticket sales would begin on February 20 next year, would be held at 1130, 1400 and 1830 GMT, which is two hours ahead of the local time.

"The one thing which we will not be able to influence is the weather and we are hoping that it will be good at the time."

The FIFA official said that there were no plans afoot to introduce a women's Confederations Cup.

"However, we have linked the under-20 women's World Cup with the women's World Cup and the youth tournament will be held a year before the major World Cup. This will give countries an opportunity to experience staging an event." (dpa)