The 2010 FIFA World Cup will give a central role to the country's youth, South African Football Association chief executive Danny Jordaan said after meeting with the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) on Thursday.

"The 2010 World Cup is to a large extent youth-focused" Jordaan said after the meeting, the aim of which was to ensure the youth play a meaningful role in the global event.

Jordaan said the meeting focused on how young people will be involved in team-building, economic participation and event delivery.

"The interest of the ANCYL is to highlight the involvement of the youth, to ensure that they play a meaningful role" ANCYL president Fikile Mbalula said.

"All South African youth have to feel that they are part and parcel of the World Cup.

"Young people are going to be central from the point of view of the development of soccer in our country and to ensure it [the World Cup] becomes an entertaining event," he added.

He said it is important that the 2010 Soccer World Cup intervene in the "second economy," and that the country's youth be engaged as volunteers.

More than 160,000 jobs stand to be created in tourism and infrastructure development during the World Cup, Mbalula said.

Most of these jobs will be temporary, ANCYL spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said.

from Sapa

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