Public loss, FIFA’s gain: How Cape Town got its ‘white elephant’
Sepp Blatter and Thabo Mbeki intervened to have Cape Town's Green Point Stadium built -- at R3-billion more expensive than two available alternatives.
Karen Schoonbee and Stefaans Brümmer, Amabhugane & ISS
Apr 29 2010
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INTRODUCTIONRead more »
It was FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s first visit to the Mother City, but he knew exactly what he wanted from her.
When Ebrahim Rasool, then premier of the Western Cape, went to see Blatter at the five-star Arabella Sheraton Hotel on 22 November 2005, the visitor complimented Cape Town’s ‘spectacular scenery’, saying the city could be the ‘face’ of 2010 and host one of two semi-final matches. He came to the point: the city’s match venue should be at Green Point and not Newlands Stadium as envisaged when South Africa won the bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup 18 months earlier, or Athlone Stadium, favoured by the province and the city for its developmental potential. A brand new stadium.
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