Journalists abandon World Cup briefing

Johannesburg - Local and international journalists on Tuesday walked out of a scheduled briefing by the board of directors of South Africa's 2010 football World Cup organizing committee after no one showed up, radio reports said. The briefing had been due to take place at 1300 local time, but when board members failed to arrive more than an hour later, angry journalists gathered at Johannesburg's plush Westcliff Hotel, agreed to leave. A spokesperson for the World Cup 2010 Local Organizing Committee (LOC) said she searched for board members, including LOC chairman Irvin Khoza, CEO Danny Jordaan and Fifa secretary general Ernst Linsi, but found that the men had been 'involved in a meeting of their own at the hotel', the Sapa news agency said. 'We have become accustomed to this kind of thick-skinned arrogance and disrespect towards the media but we had hoped matters would change once the World Cup operation swung into gear,' a local football writer was quoted as saying by the agency. Hours after the briefing was cancelled, it was still not clear why officials had failed to turn up for the event to which they had summoned the meeting. South Africa is under immense pressure to stage a successful World Cup and has had to contend with harsh criticism and doubt from around the world in this regard. © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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