THE agreement reached on Wednesday between local artists and 2010 Soccer World Cup organisers, ending their row over the line-up of musicians billed to perform at the event's opening concert in June, is welcome.

THE agreement reached on Wednesday between local artists and 2010 Soccer World Cup organisers, ending their row over the line-up of musicians billed to perform at the event's opening concert in June, is welcome.

For everyone wishing the international football showpiece to be incident-free the controversy appeared to detract from the excitement surrounding the build-up to the event.

So the decision to increase the number of African artists for the concert at Orlando Stadium on June 10 lends credence to Fifa's marketing of the tourney as a historic continental event.

Local artists had correctly questioned a line-up that showed a preponderance of overseas artists and had threatened to organise a parallel concert to upstage the international one.

We can only express our support for this very welcome turn of events