ZIWAPHI • VOL 4 NO 6 • 26 MARCH - 8 APRIL 2010
NELSPRUIT
Barely two weeks after a Fifa delegation was met by massive sand pit, the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit now boasts a lush green pitch.
When a Fifa delegation and local and international journalists visited the stadium two weeks ago as part of the 100 days countdown to the World Cup, they were stunned to see mountains of sand inside the stadium, which will host four first-round matches in barely three months’ time.
“But this week it’s a different story, with the stadium sporting lush green turf that would be the envy of any stadium around the world,” said Mbombela municipality’s 2010 coordinator, Differ Mogale.
“We laid the new pitch on Friday March 5, using rye grass all over, and by the following Wednesday it was germinating well. We’ve had our challenges, but we’re delighted that we now have a great pitch that, come the tournament, will be amongst the best in the world,” he said.
He said the municipality and stadium authorities appreciated the efforts of Fifa pitch consultant Richard Hayden, who had personally overseen the most recent effort to iron out the stadium’s pitch problems.
“In the past we relied on pitch consultants as well, but rather than simply making recommendations Richard Hayden and his team have been personally on-site with us every day over the last few weeks, getting onto tractors and showing our team just what needed to be done,” said Mogale.
“We’re very happy with the results. We’ll now give the pitch a few weeks to strengthen and while it should be fine to play on in the next six weeks, we will wait until after the first week of May to stage our first high-level test event at the stadium,” Mogale added.
Ronny Moyo, 2010 marketing and events manager for the Mbombela local municipality, echoed Mogale’s optimism.
“It took less than 10 days after seeding to have the whole pitch covered with evergreen grass. We will be trimming it sometime this week and reseed it again. Word is that other host cities are yet to do that, which means we are ahead of some of them with this move,” said Moyo.
He promised that the municipality’s preparations were on track 86 days [on Tuesday] before the all-important tournament and said a mass prayer meeting would be held on March 27 as a “simulation event” to ascertain whether certain operational functions were properly in place.
“A couple of dry-run events have also been planned for May,” Moyo said.
About the state of the roads to the stadium, which still leaves much to be desired, Moyo said the municipality expected all “major work” to have been completed by the end of April.
“That excludes the N4 bypass, which was never linked to the protocol routes as per the 2010 transport plan,” he said.
Moyo was unable to say how many tickets had been sold for matches in Nelspruit.
“About 43 600 tickets are on sale. As from April 15, the Fifa LOC [local organising committee] and host cities are going for over-the-counter sales, which is the usual practice with our local football lovers,” was all he would say.
Mbombela Stadium finally sees green
The Mbombela Stadium with a lush green world-class pitch