On a rainy summer day, the soccer world cup host city conducted the sod turning ceremony for the Peter Mokaba Sports Complex, within the deadline promised to world football governing body FIFA.

"We can now report back to FIFA that we have met the deadline as we promised by the first quarter of the year," said Danny Jordaan, Chief Executive Officer of the Local Organising Committee.

The city's high "football profile" does not match the poor infrastructure, Mr Jordaan said, adding that Polokwane had the second largest football fan base in the country.

Polokwane, he told BuaNews, was second only to Durban in terms of active football supporters, and would soon overtake the coastal host city once the Peter Mokaba Sports Complex was complete.

"We are not only building a stadium, but we want to balance the profile of the city with the football infrastructure."

The Peter Mokaba Sports Complex is one of the five stadia for 2010 which are being built from scratch.

The other four stadia are Green Point in the Western Cape; a new venue at Mbombela in Mpumalanga; an arena in the Nelson Mandela Metro in the Eastern Cape and Kings Park stadium in the eThekwini Metro in KwaZulu-Natal.

Another five existing stadia are being refurbished and upgraded for the world's most popular sporting event.

Three existing stadia in South Africa's major metropolis, Gauteng, will be upgraded. These are FNB stadium, Ellis Park in Johannesburg and Tshwane's Loftus Versfeld.

The Royal Bafokeng stadium in North West will be upgraded, as will Vodacom Park in Mangaung (Bloemfontein) in Free State province.

The nine host cities will also receive support in terms of infrastructure, such as increased electricity and water supplies, with the help of the LOC, said Mr Jordaan, adding that inspections to ensure progress in this regard would be conducted.

Polokwane will host five matches for 2010 World Cup , but would not be hosting any of the African Confederations Cup matches, Mr Jordaan told BuaNews.

The African Confederations Cup will be held in South Africa in 2009.

The stadium's project manager Tebogo Nchapha said the stadium would seat more than 45 000 people and is set to produce major economic spin-offs for the province.

"Job creation will be felt on and off the field. The manufacture of material such as bricks and steel will be done by the people of this province and inside the field it is people of the province who will be building their own stadium," Mr Nchapha said.

The stadium, set to be complete by March 2009, will have 5000 seats for the media, two lounges and more than 5000 VIP seats.

"We are confident to deliver a quality stadium that will meet FIFA's requirements."

Premier Sello Moloto assured the project manager and contractor that they had government's full support.

"We are fully behind you to deliver the best stadium for the people of this province."

FIFA's Executive Committee has agreed that in 2009, Egypt would host the FIFA under 20 World Cup and that Nigeria would host the FIFA under 17 World Cup.

"With South Africa hosting the FIFA Confederations Cup in the same year, it promises to be a busy one for the African continent, but also an extremely exciting one," the world football governing body said on its website earlier this week.

Source: Themba Gadebe, BuaNews


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