FIFA faces huge World Cup bills from South Africans

City Press newspaper in Johannesburg reported on Sunday that the football's world governing body is being sued for nearly one billion rands (143 million U.S. dollars) in unpaid debts for services provided before and during the FIFA World Cup.

The newspaper said FIFA has not paid about 240 million rands (34.2 million U.S. dollars) for the buses that transported spectators and the security supplied by South African police after private security firms pulled out of the games over pay demands.

South African host cities are also threatening to sue for unpaid bills amounting to more than 500 million rands (71.5 million U.S. dollars) for work FIFA allegedly demanded be done around stadiums.

Top executives from the South African Football Association (SAFA) reportedly went cap in hand to FIFA's headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, asking for about 60 million (8.6 million U.S. dollars) used to buy hospitality packages.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup, the first to be staged in Africa, was held from June 11- July 11.

South Africa's transport parastatal Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) entered into a 174 million rands (24.9 million U.S.dollars) agreement with FIFA's Match Hospitality for the provision of buses to transport fans.

City Press said FIFA now faces a 148 million rands (24.8 million U.S. dollars) lawsuit over the unpaid transport bill.

PRASA says FIFA was expected to settle the bill by Aug. 31, but has so far only paid 26 million rands ( 3.7 million U.S. dollars).

Nana Zenani, PRASA's spokesman said the entity "formally asserts that the matter is in the hands of its legal team".

Zenani would not comment on the agency's next move, Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.xinhuanet.com for full version.