Accommodation 'no longer issue' at the World Cup: FIFA

Cape Town, Dec 2: Football fans who are planning on travelling to the World Cup in South Africa no longer need to worry about finding a bed.

FIFA has deleted accommodation from the to-do list of issues to resolve before the tournament.

"We are fine. It's not any more on the list as an issue," FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke said in surprise remarks Wednesday in Cape Town after a meeting of the World Cup organizing committee.

In June, FIFA identified accommodation, together with transport, as two areas that South Africa needed to address before hundreds of thousands of football fans descend on the country for the June 11-July 11 tournament.

Until now, FIFA's official accommodation agency Match has struggled to contract the 55,000 rooms it needs for the teams, FIFA officials and package-holders.

Match, which was accused by smaller hotels and B+Bs of bullying on pricing, was forced to sign up non-graded accommodation to cover its shortfall.

Transport issues were also being addressed, he said. FIFA was renting airplanes, "big ones," to transport fans between games in the nine host cities, he said.

FIFA was also looking at how to facilitate travel for fans from the five other African countries that will participate in the World Cup.

There are no direct flights from the likes of Cote d'Ivoire or Ghana to South Africa.