JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) – South Africa disbursed the first 56 million rand ($6.29 million) of its 2010 World Cup legacy fund yesterday to a variety of projects involving teenage soccer players, coaches and administrators.

A total of 450 million rand was handed to South Africa by soccer governing body FIFA in late 2010 as profit from hosting the finals. Then money was placed in a trust and development projects seeking funding were invited to submit applications.
The trust board, including FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke, distributed the first allocation of the money to projects such as the establishment of boys’ and girls’ league at Under-13 and Under-15 levels and a programme to train coaches, referees and administrators.
“The World Cup has brought a lot to South Africa. It is a different place to that before the World Cup and not just because of the new infrastructure but the way it is perceived around the world,” Valcke said at a media conference yesterday.