South Africa has silenced its pre-tournament critics, says World Cup organising chief Danny Jordaan.

He said that some football associations have even contacted him to apologise for comments made before the 2010 World Cup kicked off.

“It’s wonderful that the doubters are the believers today,” he said.

“Our worst critics have come forward and said ‘you know what, we were wrong. This is an incredible experience for us’,” added Jordaan.

Only eight days and four games remain in the tournament, which has already seen 60 games played across 10 venues.

In the years running up to the competition, concerns were raised over the country’s ability to safely run the world’s most-watched sporting competition.

Jordaan says such criticisms have proved to be unfounded, and those responsible have come forward to congratulate his committee.

“One or two in fact apologised for saying all these things about the country, its people and about the World Cup,” he said.

“It’s very satisfying to us as a nation, it’s not a personal thing. Affirmation is always good, affirmation of a country’s ability to deliver helps.”

One concern before the opening games was that if South Africa were to be knocked out in the group stages enthusiasm would quickly die down.

However, despite the hosts exiting at the group stages and all but one of Africa’s competing nations having been knocked out – as well as the early departures of big teams like Italy, France and England – Jordaan insists the support and excitement is not waning.

“It is so in the World Cup, when one team drops out, their fans naturally go home,” he said.

“But what happens then is that supporters from other teams come in, so that’s how it is and how it will be.”