Blatter: Africa gets 9 out of 10, Spain's win a victory for football

By George Burns Jul 12, 2010, 13:31 GMT

Johannesburg - FIFA president Joseph Blatter praised South Africa for its hosting of the 2010 World Cup on Monday, while describing Spain's defeat of the Netherlands in the final as a victory for football.

'A big compliment to the people and the government of South Africa for all the guarantees that they have given and met,' Blatter told reporters at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.

'I would like to give a compliment to Africa as a continent as they have proven that they can organize this World Cup, they can organize a big competition,' he said at the tournament's closing press conference

When asked to rate South Africa's running of the event out of 10, Blatter said after hosting last year's Confederations Cup, the country deserved a 7.5 but that had now risen.

'I would say now they deserve a 9 out 10,' he said. 'Perfection does not exist.'

The head of football's ruling body refused to comment on the tactics of the Netherlands team in Sunday's final at Soccer City when eight Dutch players were booked and John Heitinga sent off in the ill-tempered 1-0 loss to La Roja.

'It was not exactly what I have expected of fair play on the field,' he said, before adding that 'finally we had a winner playing good football'.

Earlier in the tournament, Blatter apologized to Mexico and England for refereeing errors in their games but the 74-year-old ignored a request to issue a similar apology to Ireland over their elimination by France in qualifying courtesy of a handball by Thierry Henry.

He also refused to give an opinion on the performance of final referee Howard Webb, who also issued five yellow cards to Spanish players in a bruising final.

'It was a very hard task that the refereeing trio had yesterday on the field of play,' said Blatter. They were not helped in this task.'

As previously, Blatter called on football fans to accept what he called the 'human aspect' of football.

'Would our game be perfect, would it be better if it was scientific, was only controlled by technology and science? he asked.

'This is football, we take note of all the comments that are made. We live with the errors of players, the errors of referees. I don't think that perfection exists in this world.'