The City of Cape Town's 2010 director Teral Cullen was also in Berlin. "The handover went very well indeed," she told CityNews from the German capital. "Everybody is looking forward to visiting South Africa in four year's time."

Cape Town and the other eight local host cities promoted themselves at the event, and Cullen says the Cape Town stand was "very well received". Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool was present, and spoke about Cape Town's preparations to host World Cup games.

Despite media reports that South Africa would not be ready and that Fifa was drawing up contingency plans to move the World Cup to Australia should preparations not be on track, Blatter reiterated his support for South Africa, saying the Fifa family trusts the country, and there was great joy that the World Cup will for the first time be based on African soil.

Mbeki gave his assurance that South Africa was capable of hosting the event, just as it had overcome difficulties such as apartheid in the past. He promised the country will host "the most successful World Cup ever".

"It was comforting that Fifa cleared up that South Africa would definitely host the 2010 event, and gave their full confidence that everything will be ready in time," Cullen said.

"It is going to be very hard work, but we are going to be able to deliver a good World Cup."

Turning to the City's preparations, Cullen said the delivery of the World Cup will be assisted by various stakeholders, and the organisers are working closely with them. Security will be a big issue, and will be dealt with by the South African Police Services, while having the necessary infrastructure in place is the other key component to a successful event.

The Local Organising Committee will focus mainly on the football delivery, while the City will be responsible for all the other aspects of dealing with the influx of the teams, supporters and world media into Cape Town, and will have to cover aspects such as transport, cleansing, essential services, entertainment, and "making sure everything runs smoothly".

Cullen also pointed out that the German World Cup was hugely successful in terms of marketing. German cities erected huge screens in public spaces for those not able to get tickets to games, and this "worked very well, and we are going to do the same in South Africa".

She added that these open spaces created a "huge party atmosphere" and were well policed and the crowds were generally well behaved.

As for the nail-biting final, Cullen said: "Fifa put on a spectacular show, the atmosphere was fantastic, and it was a fitting way to end the World Cup."

She added that hosting the event was "very good for nation-building in Germany, and helping to change world perceptions of Germans. Hopefully we can do the same thing in South Africa".