Pretoria - South African Football Association (SAFA) President, Kirsten Nematandani, has added his voice in congratulating Russia and Qatar for winning the bid to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups respectively.
"We want to congratulate the two countries on their successsful achievement following their selection to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018 and 2022.
"To us it means that they have worked very hard to impress the selectors to prove that they deserve to organise the global event," said Nematandani. He also wished the two nations success in organising the prestigious event.
The 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC) boss, Danny Jordaan, advised Russia and Qatar to start with the preparations of staging the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals immediately.
This comes after FIFA on Thursday announced Russia as the winning bidder to host the 2018 World Cup, while Qatar was given the right to organise the 2022 World Cup.
Jordaan said: "Both the countries will have to build roads, stadiums and training centres."
However, LOC chairperson Irvin Khoza sympathised with England for failing to win the bid.
"Tactically, England is one of the best bids in terms of transport, infrastructure and support," he said.
Russia's home grounds are Luzhniki Stadium, Lokomotiv Stadium, and Petrovsky Stadium and their head coach is Dick Advocaat. Russia qualified for two World Cups (1994, 2002).
Their 0-1 defeat against Slovenia saw Russia failing to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
On the other hand, Qatar has never represented Asia in a FIFA World Cup and they failed to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup after finishing fourth in their qualifying group.
The Arab national team is sitting at 113 of the FIFA world rankings, while Russia is ranked 13.
