Offering the stage City of Cape Town in the chase to host the Fifa Club World Cup
Mother City has raised hand to host top football event
● The City of Cape Town has emerged as a frontrunner to stage the 2021 Fifa Club World Cup in the event that SA, through the bidding process which is spearheaded by the SA Football Association (Safa), gets the nod from the world governing body to be the hosts.
The prestigious event, which will be held in December, was left without a country to host it after Japan indicated a few weeks ago that it won’t be able to continue hosting it due to the rise of coronavirus cases in that country.
Egypt and Qatar are the other countries that are eying the event, but SA looks to be in a strong position after Safa president Danny Jordaan met Fifa’s president Gianni Infantino and secretary-general Fatma Samoura as well as Caf president Patrice Motsepe in Nigeria to discuss the possibility of SA staging the event in one of its cities.
The trio encouraged Safa to write a letter to Fifa to indicate their interest in hosting the event and the association’s CEO Tebogo Motlanthe has already done that.
“Yes the Safa CEO (Motlanthe) wrote to Fifa (on Friday) to indicate our interest in hosting the event immediately after president Jordaan met with Fifa and the Caf president in Nigeria on Thursday,” Safa communications manager Dominic Chimhavi told the Sunday Times on Friday.
Though Cape Town mayor Dan Plato was cagey about disclosing all the discussion they’ve had with Safa, he, however, confirmed that the city could be willing and able to host the event if Safa’s bid was successful.
“We are keen to explore the potential of hosting such an exciting event, but we would have to receive an official request (from Safa) first,” Plato responded. “We will take the request through the City’s internal processes to evaluate the feasibility of hosting it.”
But an insider within the City of Cape Town told the Sunday Times that the City has already engaged Safa and it was now a matter of waiting for Fifa to make their decision.
Though the eThekwini municipality and the City of Johannesburg have not had talks with Safa, they did say that they were aware of the possibility and the spin-offs that their cities could gain from hosting the Club World Cup.
“It is also about the fiscus. We can’t just say we’ll do it without assessing our financial position. We can’t just say we’re so excited let’s host it simply because it comes with a lot of benefit. We need to check first if we’ll have the money and all the infrastructure required,” Johannesburg mayor Jolidee Matongo said yesterday. He also confirmed that they haven’t had talks in the City or with Safa on the matter.
Spokesperson for the mayor of eThekwini Mluleki Mntungwa said the City has not had discussions about the Club World Cup but they’re keeping an eye on it.
“For us things will have to start at our portfolio committees and then after that the mayor (Mxolisi Kaunda) can then engage with the relevant stakeholders that hold the keys to host such an event,” said Mntungwa yesterday.
The Club World Cup is contested by continental champions from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America and Oceania.
Uefa Champions League reigning champions Chelsea from England will represent Europe while Al Ahly of Egypt, coached by SA-born coach Pitso Mosimane, will be Africa’s representatives.
Auckland City from New Zealand will participate while the other three slots are yet to be taken.
If Cape Town is successful in bidding for the event, Mamelodi Sundowns as SA league champions will represent SA as the hosts are always given a slot.
Chimhavi said in line with making sure that by the time the Club World Cup arrives in December things are almost back to normality with regards to having the football fans back at the stadiums, Safa will have further engagements with the department of health in the coming week.
Jordaan has already said that Bafana Bafana could have the vaccinated fans at the stadium when they host Ethiopia in a 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifier on October 10.
“The president has had to cut his trip short in Nigeria because of the meeting that we will have with the health ministry in the coming week,” Chimhavi said.
The spokesperson for the national health department Foster Mohale also confirmed the meeting.
“The meeting is scheduled for next week but the exact date and time is not yet finalised. For now we’re comparing the diaries between ourselves and Safa,” Mohale said.
Football fans have not watched football live at the stadiums since March 2020 when the coronavirus was detected in SA. The Club World Cup could be the big event that eventually leads to other activities being opened to the public in SA.
Safa’s CEO wrote to Fifa to indicate our interest Dominic Chimhavi
Safa communications manager