Soccer World Cup

32 teams, 32 World Cup base camps

25 February 2010

Fifa has released a list of base camps for the 32 teams participating in the 2010 World Cup, with hosts Bafana Bafana to be based at the Southern Sun Grayston Hotel and to train at Sandown High School in Johannesburg.

Fourteen other teams will be in Gauteng province along with Bafana Bafana, while six teams will be based in KwaZulu-Natal, four in the Western Cape, three in North West province and one each in Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape.

Other teams that will be based in and around Johannesburg include Honduras at the Indaba Hotel, Mexico at Thaba ya Batswana, Netherlands at the Hilton Sandton, North Korea at the Protea Hotel Midrand, Serbia at the Sunnyside Park Hotel, and Slovenia at the Hyde Park Southern Sun.

Teams to be based around Pretoria include Argentina, at the High Performance Centre, Germany at the Velmore Hotel in Centurion, Italy at the Leriba Lodge outside Pretoria, Slovakia at the Villas Luxury Suite Hotel, and the United States at the Irene Country Lodge.

Australia will be based at the Kloofzicht Lodge near Muldersdrift on the West Rand, New Zealand at Serengeti Estate near OR Tambo International Airport, and Switzerland at the Emerald Resort and Casino in Vanderbijlpark, to the south of Johannesburg.

Those that will be based in KwaZulu-Natal province include Algeria at the Monduzur in San Lameer, Cameroon at the Oyster Box in Umhlanga, Greece at the Beverly Hills Hotel at Umhlanga Rocks, Ivory Coast at the Riverside Hotel and Spa in Durban, Nigeria at the Hampshire in Durban, Paraguay at Woodridge Country Estate in the Midlands, and Portugal at the Valley Lodge in Hillcrest.

The Western Cape will play host to Brazil at the Fairway in Cape Town, Denmark at the Simola Hotel Country Club in Knysna, France at the Pezula Resort Hotel and Spa in Knysna, and Japan at the Fancourt Hotel and Country Club outside George.

Teams that will be based in North West province include England at the Bafokeng Sports Campus in Rustenburg, Spain at North West University campus in Potchefstroom, and South Korea at the Hunters Rest Hotel in Rustenburg.

Provinces that will host only a single team include Mpumalanga, with Chile based at the Ingwenyama Conference Centre; the Eastern Cape, with Ghana based at Rhoode Valley; and the Northern Cape, with Uruguay based at the Protea Hotel Kimberley.

Fifa says the list is subject to change, as teams could still move their base camps.

SAinfo reporter and BuaNews

The World Cup and Neo-Liberal Priorities in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Posted by tellnolies on April 22, 2010

from

This may be one of those times when the hangover starts before the party is even over. Townships organizations have already called for protests during the World Cup if demands for basic public services aren’t met. That’s what happens when the grass water is clean but the wells of drinking water—along with FIFA’s politics—are absolutely filthy.

A Stadium Grows in Durban

by Dave Zirin

I have been to many a playing field in my day, and never have I seen a sports arena as breathtaking as Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, South Africa. After taking a private tour of the $457 million marvel, I left utterly stunned, for both better and worse.

Named after the late leader of the South African Communist Party, the stadium is a stylistic masterpiece. The eggshell white facility is visible for miles, rising from the Earth in milky waves, contrasting sharply with the dusty, urban environs that surround it. The open roof has a graceful, slender arc connecting one side of the stadium to the other. The arc itself is a wonder: starting as one clean curve, and then splitting into two separate stretches of white. This is an homage to the post-apartheid South African flag, with the stripes meant to symbolize, as the government website states, “the convergence of diverse elements within South African society, taking the road ahead in unity.” Well-heeled adrenalin junkies can even go to the top of the arc and bungee-swing across the pitch.

On one side of the stadium behind the goal is a completely open vista in the shape of a  mammoth square called “the window unto Durban,” and sure enough, the Durban skyline backdrops the stadium through this “window.” But the true engineering achievement of Moses Mabhida Stadium are the bleachers. They angle up with such subtlety that the effect is of a saucer instead of a bowl. Every one of the 74,000 seats has a picture perfect sightline on the action, whether you are in the nosebleeds or the corporate boxes. The seats themselves are painted in rich colors: the first level is royal blue to represent the ocean, the middle ones are green to signify the land, and the top is brown, as a sportswriter said to me, “so it looks full on television.”

The most striking color in the stadium is not in the bleachers, though. It’s the grass. The grass is a green so bright it hurts the eyes, with every blade appearing as if it were painstakingly colored with a magic marker. This has been created with the aid of near-infinite gallons of water, which I saw constantly irrigating the field.

I raise the issue of the stadium’s incomparable beauty because South African politicians in support of the World Cup accuse detractors of what they call “Afro-pessimism.” They allege critics lack the faith that South Africa can host an event of this magnitude. Bollocks. No one doubts whether South Africa can do it. The problem is how the government and FIFA are executing their nefarious plans.

This is a country where staggering wealth and poverty already stand side by side. The World Cup, far from helping this situation, is just putting a magnifying glass on every blemish of this post-apartheid nation.

To see a country already dotted with perfectly usable stadiums spend approximately $6 billion on new facilities is to notice a squandering of resources that is unconscionable.

To see endless gallons of water wasted on the soccer pitch, in a country where lack of access to water is spurring protests throughout the townships, is to recognize a reckless disregard for the people’s needs. As Simon Magagula, who lives in a mud house near one of the new stadiums said to The New York Times, “We’ve been promised a better life, but look how we live. If you pour water into a glass, you can see things moving inside.”

To see an architectural marvel like Moses Mabhida Stadium in a country where access to clean and affordable shelter is a pipe-dream for so many is to witness the interests of government colliding with the people they’ve been elected to serve.

And to see a stadium named in honor of Moses Mabhida, who symbolizes anti-poverty struggles for millions of South Africans, is to stare at irony in its most lurid form.

As the price and the demands made by FIFA grow more onerous, many are having second thoughts. Zayn Nabbi, the sports correspondent for South Africa’s E Television, gave me the stadium tour. Nabbi looked around and said, “The Moses Mabhida Stadium, structurally, is brilliant. World class. However, when you think about the cost in a country with so much damaged public service, it’s difficult to think that this was right. There are areas in dire need of funding. We were all so caught up in the love story of winning the World Cup—the romance of it all—we didn’t grasp or we weren’t told the repercussions. We all got caught up in the spin. I put myself in that category certainly. The hangover when this is all done will be brutal, man.”

This may be one of those times when the hangover starts before the party is even over. Townships organizations have already called for protests during the World Cup if demands for basic public services aren’t met. That’s what happens when the grass water is clean but the wells of drinking water—along with FIFA’s politics—are absolutely filthy.

“Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games We Love” (Scribner)