Venues won't be white elephants - Jordaan

South Africa does not plan to demolish any of its World Cup stadiums nor will any of them turn into neglected "white elephants", Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the 2010 tournament, said on Wednesday.

Jordaan, speaking at the 'Leaders In Football' business conference at Chelsea's Stamford Bridgeground, said that of the 10 stadiums where matches were staged during the World Cup, eight were expected to flourish by being used for soccer and rugby.

"For South Africa some of these stadiums will be a challenge," he admitted.

Jordaan added: "The fact that we have the football and rugby unions in the same stadiums -- for example the All Blacks played the Springboks at Soccer City and 92 000 people were present -- proves that for about 80 per cent of the stadiums it will be fine.

"One or two stadiums may struggle to be sustainable."

Jordaan said the two stadiums in question are the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane and the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit, where group stage matches were hosted.

He later told Reuters: "They will not become white elephants but they do face challenges.

"However, those challenges can be met. Contrary to some reports there are no plans to demolish any of them."

Reflecting on the build-up to the World Cup finals, he said the lowest point came after the gun attack on the Togo team at the African Cup of Nations in Angola in January.

He also praised Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger for keeping his faith in the Angola tournament and not recalling his players after the attack, which left two people dead and eight injured.

"You have difficult moments, but that was the last of the low points."

He said the final revenue and profit figures from the World Cup have not yet been calculated but the finals had a huge impact on South African tourism and the economy.

He said that growth rebounded from minus 1.9 per cent in 2009 to plus 2.5 per cent immediately after the World Cup -- with a half per cent of that rise "directly attributable to the World Cup".

Jordaan has recently been on the Fifa inspection team analysing the bids of the nine candidates for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.