Johannesburg - Football's controlling body FIFA on Friday said that the global economic crisis has not caused a problem for the organization.

"We are glad that the crisis has not touched FIFA. We are not Swiss for nothing. We are still a safe company," general secretary Jerome Valcke said.

Addressing a press conference in Johannesburg a day before the Confederations Cup draw Valcke said that any unplanned changes that the FIFA expected to be implemented by the local organizing committee (LOC) that placed a financial burden on the LOC would be discussed between the parties.

The economic crisis has seen the South African rand plummet from seven rand to the dollar to 10 rand to the dollar, resulting in some extra costs in the construction of stadiums.

Valcke said that they had fixed the exchange rate for tickets during the Confederation Cup and the World Cup at seven rand to one dollar.

"You have to take a decision at some stage and we took it. It is impossible to predict what the exchange rate will be like at the World Cup, so we took a decision."

He said that the time of preparations was nearly over. "Since we started working with the local organizing committee and the government many years have passed and the time of preparations is nearly over.

"We consider the Confederations Cup as a trial run of the World Cup. It is not only a test of the structures, but also of all the people. It will give us a road map of what we need to improve and what we have to change."

Danny Jordaan, the LOC chief executive officer, said he considered the biggest challenge facing the organizers was ensuring that the stadiums are filled for the Confederations Cup.

Tickets for the competition that features Brazil, Iraq, US, South Africa, Italy, Spain, New Zealand and Egypt, will go on sale November 23, a day after the draw.

"We will have to fill the stadium for every single game, not just for high profile games. We have to embrace all teams, not just our own and a few others.

"We are calling on all people, also those beyond the host cities to come and watch the matches."

LOC chairman Irvin Khoza said that he was confident that there would be no problem ensuring that the four stadiums that would be used for the Confederations Cup would be ready.

"The deadline for handing over the stadiums is the end of December. We will hand them over to FIFA then and maybe one of them will not be quite ready, but I am confident that everything will be ready by the end of January," he said. (dpa)