Johannesburg's FNB Stadium - still familiar to global football fans as Soccer City, South Africa's flagship 2010 World Cup stadium - will hostthe opening and closing ceremonies and matches of the 2013 African Cup of Nations.
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| AFCON 2013 South Africa |
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula made the announcement at a post-Cabinet media briefing in Pretoria on Friday,saying the rest of the matches would be played at four venues. These are the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, and the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.
"Rather than using the whole of the republic, we have reduced to a total number of five stadiums so that they are close to each other," Mbalula explained.
Moved forward South Africa had been due to host Africa's most important football tournament in 2017, but the date was moved forward to 2013 after political unrest in Libya, which was originally scheduled to host next year's event.
Tournament CEO Mvuzo Mbebe, when he was introduced as the finals' CEO in March, said that South Africa will aim to buck the trend at recent African Nations Cup tournaments by filling the stadiums at the 2013 continental showpiece.
Mbebe said that filling the stadiums would be a top priority for the organisers - requiring them to sell around half-a-million tickets - and that they work towards using strategies that made the 2010 Fifa World Cup such a success, including the hugely popular Football Fridays campaign.
Low attendance has been a problem in past editions of the African Cup of Nations, with this year's tournament in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon the most recent example.
Bafana Bafana The performance of the South African national team would therefore be crucial, Mbebe said.Bafana Bafana last won the tournament in 1996, when South Africa hosted it for the first time -recording packed houses all the way through the tournament.
The finals will feature 16 teams, with 24 group matches and eight knockout matches. A total of 47 countries have entered the qualifying rounds for the 2013 African Cup of Nations, including South Africa, who qualify automatically as the hosts of the event.
It's an opportunity for Bafana Bafana to turn around their flagging fortunes; the team has gone winless in its last six games, dropping down to a disappointing 71st place in the latest Fifa world rankings.
Facing the leading teams on the continent will give South Africa the chance to move rapidly up the standings once more, provided they do well on home soil. 'Restore lost national pride' "If we pass the group stages and go to the final of the 2013 Afcon, it gives the chance to restore lost national pride," Safa president Kirsten Nematandani said.
Although the African Cup of Nations finals take place every second year, the Confederation of African Football decided to hold back-to-back finals this time around in order to shift the tournament to odd years, to prevent it clashing with the World Cup. The official draw for the Afcon 2013 finals will take place on 26 October.
Source : SAinfo reporter
Tags: Afcon 2013, Afcon 2013 south africa, afcon hosts,bafana bafana,afcon stadiums
