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Joe Mcgluwa, the ID Spokesperson for Sport, has called on world football body Fifa ‘to finally tell South Africa where the remaining 6 of the 32 teams competing in the World Cup will be based.'

The deadline for base camp announcements was 9 days ago, on 31 January, a deadline which was extended for another week.

‘I think Fifa must take us seriously when it comes to deadlines because we can't on the one hand have sceptics in Europe saying we are going to be late for this and that while on the other hand it is Fifa itself that is missing deadlines,' Mr Mcgluwa says.

‘Also, if and when there are delays then the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and other relevant stakeholders, as well as the public, need to be informed of the reasons for those delays.

‘These deadlines are crucial because we are just 4 months away from kick-off and many hotels are keeping all their rooms open for that period ,when in fact they may not even get to host a team,' says Mcgluwa.

Hotels like the Blue Lagoon in East London, in the Eastern Cape were forced to give FIFA an undertaking 18 months ago that they would not rent out any rooms during the World Cup in order to stand in line to possibly qualify as a team hotel.

‘Over and above the financial losses and inconveniences to hotels, there are municipalities that have already spent hundreds of millions of rand trying to lure teams to set up camp in their cities,' says Mcgluwa.

‘For instance, the King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality has already spent R200 million building a multi-purpose stadium to attract a team to Mthatha, but this now looks highly unlikely.

‘R200 million is a huge amount of money in a city with a collapsing infrastructure and serious issues around poverty. It is only natural that residents ask questions about how some of these decisions were made,' Mcgluwa says.

‘There is a very real danger that stadiums like the one in Mthatha will be nothing more than White Elephants.'