Plans to deliver stadium within five years
MBABANE – It seems government has finally attached timelines for delivering the much-needed stadium.
Sihlangu host their official games in South Africa, incurring huge expenses on top of missing out on gate takings. This is because the country’s national stadium, Somhlolo cannot host category ‘A’ international matches, pending approval by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The stadium headache could be a thing of the past following plans to deliver the essential facility within five years.
This was disclosed by the minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs in an exclusive interview with this publication, two days ago.
“We are equally concerned about the current situation. As a ministry, our plan for the time being is to make sure that Somhlolo meets the required international standard. Even though we don’t have the actual date at the moment, on when this will be achieved, we strongly believe that it will happen very soon. In terms of the future, we are working very hard to have a stadium. We have strategies in place to deal with that and we are hopeful that will happen within the five years in office,” said the minister.
Reports suggest that constructing a proper stadium costs around E2 billion. The minister, on the other, said government was equally concerned about the underperformance of the national team, Sihlangu.
Each year, government pumps in at least E5 million into the underperforming side that has never qualified for any tournament in history.
“At this stage, we can’t say we need more money to perform better. We need a vigorous plan to identify good football talent. We need to go out there in rural communities to identify players and nurture this raw talent with the right technical skills to reach for the stars. Through Ingwenyama Cup, we have learnt to bring all communities on board in talent identification,” said the minister.
(Read full interview with Minister Nzima on page 37)