After a good deal of haggling and horse trading, the South African Football Association (Safa) has chosen to play the Nelson Mandela Cup game between Bafana Bafana and Senegal at the Eastern Province Rugby Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Saturday November 13.
This was confirmed on Sunday by Safa CEO Raymond Hack, who added that the Lions of Tiranga will be bringing their top players to South Africa for a repeat of the 2002 Nelson Mandela game — won by Senegal after a penalty shoot-out at Ellis Park.
Senegal, at the time, were categorised as one of the soccer ”flavours of the moment” after equalling Cameroon’s record by becoming only the second African nation to reach the World Cup quarterfinals. The game at Ellis Park attracted a 40 000 crowd.
This year’s Nelson Mandela Cup game needs to be a success in all respects in order to provide a boost for both Bafana and the Herculean operation of organising the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
It is for this reason that Safa was at pains to find a suitable venue for the game, with a prerequisite that it would attract a sizeable crowd.
At one time it was even mooted the Nelson Mandela game could be staged in London — thereby attracting a substantial core of South Africans who are now living in England.
Durban, which has bailed out Safa and the Premier Soccer League by generating substantial crowds on numerous occasions, appeared to lose its zest for the life-saving role when only average attendance was recorded for the vital African Nations Cup qualifying game between Bafana and the Democratic Republic of Congo three weeks ago.
Port Elizabeth has been starved of major matches in the past year and for this reason it was seen as the best bet to attract a sizeable crowd.
The one misgiving, however, is that the pitch at the Port Elizabeth Stadium has often proved below-par for major soccer attractions, but Safa has apparently had an assurance this will not prove a problem on this occasion. — Sapa