Danny Jordaan, South African chief executive of FIFA's 2010 local organizing committee, described the South African government 's decision to bestow the Order of OR to Hayatou as recognition of the role football plays in the development of the continent.

"Football is hope no matter how you look at it, you can ask the poorest of our people in this country about how they feel about the World Cup coming to South Africa. The answer will be one of happiness."

Six of the 32 teams competing in this year's World Cup are from the African continent. They are Algeria, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and hosts South Africa.

The rest are made up of teams from America, Europe and Asia.

"The performance of the African teams in this World Cup will be key to an argument for more African teams to be included in the future," Jordaan said.

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