Messi & co ‘definitely’ in SA
SOCCER BOSS: STARS SET TO PLAY IN FC BARCELONA-SUNDOWNS MATCH
Sell-out crowd of 85 000 expected for Wednesday’s Cup game.
Asell-out crowd of 85 000 is expected to pack into FNB Stadium on Wednesday evening as Mamelodi Sundowns take on FC Barcelona in the Mandela Centenary Cup.
The demand for the chance to see the likes of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho in the flesh has been huge.
Tickets went on sale Thursday afternoon and were expected to be sold out, according to Stadium Management CEO Jacques Grobbelaar.
Ticket prices ranged from R40 for the cheapest to R550 for the most expensive, with about 65 500 going on general sale.
It remains to be seen exactly how much game time Messi, Suarez and Iniesta get on Wednesday, but they are definitely coming to South Africa, if the words of La Liga Africa Director Antonio Barradas are to be believed.
“It was a tremendous task (to get this game to happen), because we wanted to bring the top players in the world. Another time, we wouldn’t be guaranteed the top players like Messi, Suarez and Countinho and definitely we are having the top players coming over to play this game,” said Barradas this week.
Sundowns president Patrice Motsepe initially said this friendly match was happening on SABC Radio on May 4, but he may have jumped the gun, as it seemed all necessary approval had not yet been gained.
Motsepe explained that the reason for any delay in the official announcement was that in a World Cup year, approval had to be obtained from various national football associations for their players to be allowed to go to South Africa.
“We had no doubt that the game would take place. The one thing we have learned is that this is the year of the 2018 Fifa World Cup, and there are so many stakeholders, the national teams of different countries,” said Motsepe.
“The main concern is that their players play in the most competitive league in the world. With fatigue and the number of games, the main focus of every country is to make sure they are in as good a position as possible (for the World Cup) and that their players don’t play more games than necessary.”
With this in mind, it is certainly quite possible, for example, that a promise has been made to Argentina that Messi will only play for a certain amount of minutes on Wednesday.
Barcelona, meanwhile, finally announced the game on their website yesterday, about six days after Motsepe had gone public, paying tribute to Nelson Mandela.
“FC Barcelona has always professed its admiration for Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest figures of the 20th century, who after 27 years in prison went on to become the first democratically elected president of post-apartheid South Africa from 1994 to 1999.
“Mandela represented the struggle for freedom and equality and played a huge role in unifying the racially divided society. It is precisely this kind of spirit with which FC Barcelona has always been identified,” read a part of the article.