Watchdog panel: FIFA to withdraw ads that drew complaints over host city names

Watchdog: FIFA to withdraw ads that drew complaint

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s Advertising Standards Authority says FIFA has promised to bar further use of World Cup ads in which the host cities of Pretoria and Bloemfontein are referred to only by relatively new African names.

An Afrikaner lobby group called AfriForum, and several members of the public, had complained about the ads. AfriForum said they created the misimpression that Pretoria’s and Bloemfontein’s names had been changed.

Throughout the run-up to the World Cup, FIFA had undertaken to use two names when appropriate — the traditional city names, Pretoria and Bloemfontein, and the new, post-apartheid names of the regional municipalities, Tshwane and Manguang. AfriForum said the ads it complained about, unlike most FIFA-produced material, used only the newer names.