Blatter backs SA Olympic bid

World football supremo Joseph Blatter on Thursday backed South Africa to bid for the 2020 Olympics.

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has hinted the country might bid for the Games after successfully hosting the first World Cup to be held in Africa. No African country has yet hosted the Olympics.

“If a country can organize FIFA’s World Cup, it can also organise the Olympic Games because the Olympic Games are mostly confined in one city,” the FIFA president Blatter told a press conference in Johannesburg three days before the final of the World Cup.

Blatter said he would “fully support” a South African bid as he praised the World Cup hosts for an outstanding World Cup.
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said last month he would welcome such a pitch and that he would discuss the issue with Zuma at the World Cup final on Sunday.

With London hosting the 2012 Games and Rio de Janeiro the 2016 edition, South Africa could only aim for 2020 and beyond. The port city of Durban has made known its interest in staging the Games.

The city of Cape Town bid for the 2004 Olympics, ending third behind Athens and Rome.