Mossel Bay to host Paraguay in 2010
12. Sep, 2009
3 Comments
It’s official: Paraguay has qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa – and will be coming to Mossel Bay.
In a mail sent to colleagues after the game, Mossel Bay’s 2010 Coordinator, Louis Harris, who was present as a guest of the Paraguayan Football Federation, said, “Tonight I had the fortunate experience to see Paraguay qualifying for 2010 against Argentina in the Del Chaco stadium in Asuncion with a score of 1-0.
“It is now two hours after the game and the city is celebrating with fireworks and cars hooting all the time. The passion for the game is just unbelievable.
“Paraguay and Brazil are now in the wonderful position of having 30 points each.”
Mr. Harris congratulated the Paraguayans on their win, and said that he was now looking forward to finalising arrangements for their base camp in Mossel Bay. The town announced last week that it had signed an agreement to host the Federation in the event they qualified for the 2010 World Cup.
“We are already in an advanced stage of planning, with work progressing quickly on our new FIFA-standard Pitch, which is being built on the Extension 23 Community Fields.
“Through our 2010 Community Forum, we’ve also begun negotiations with various bodies in government and the private sector – ranging from the police to paramedics and the taxi associations – and, of course, we are well on track to meet our target of making at least 400 locals conversant in the Spanish Language so that we can properly host the team and their supporters.
“We have also paid particular attention to our Legacy Projects, and last week launched our ‘We Speak Spanish’ campaign and our ‘South-South Strategy’ in South America – both of which seek to increase ties in the fields of sports, tourism, health, social welfare, and scientific discovery with Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil.”
Mr. Harris added that an important part of the South-South Strategy was Mossel Bay Tourism’s new Spanish Language web site, www.mosselbay2010.com.ar, which is almost a replica of the town’s main marketing site, www.visitmosselbay.co.za.
“In truth, like all base camp destinations, Mossel Bay took a gamble that we would host a Spanish-speaking team for 2010, but we hedged our bets by ensuring that the town would benefit from our work on the bidding process. So you can imagine that we are delighted that we’ll be welcoming the Paraguayans next year.
“The Federation has informed us that we can expect that upwards of 6,000 supporters will follow the team to South Africa, and we’re going to make sure that they become 6,000 ambassadors for Mossel Bay and the Eden Region by doing everything we can to decorate the town in their honour, and to provide them with a holiday they’ll never forget.”
For more about the Paraguay / Argentina game, search www.fifa.com/worldcup/news
My name is Muzi Mohale a full-time travel blogger, your host at Travelwires.com responsible for all editorial on this blog. I blog about the travel and tourism industry in Africa. Apart from blogging about tourism, I also run 
Its great that a team has choosen Mossel Bay – it should boost tourism and bring a new kind of tourist that would probably never have thought of visiting Mossel Bay before.