South Africa’s national football and rugby teams will play on the same day at the former World Cup showpiece stadium in Soweto to honour Nelson Mandela, bringing together the country’s two most popular sports that once portrayed its racial divisions.
SuperSport
The South African sports ministry said on Tuesday that the Nelson Mandela Sports Day on August 17 at FNB Stadium – formerly Soccer City – was aimed at uniting the country and the world “in celebration and promotion” of the anti-apartheid leader’s legacy.
While calling it a celebration, the ministry also noted the somber mood in South Africa, with its inspiring former president, now 94, still critically ill in hospital.
“The launch happens at a time when South Africa is a nation in distress following the hospitalisation of father and icon Nelson Mandela, who also happens to be the primary inspiration behind this initiative,” the ministry said.
On the day, South Africa’s football team will face Burkina Faso in a friendly and the Springboks will start their Rugby Championship campaign against Argentina, both at the 94 000-seat FNB Stadium on the outskirts of Soweto, a site which also holds significance for sport and for Mandela.
The old FNB stadium was where Mandela made one of his first speeches in Johannesburg and after his release from prison in 1990. Soccer City was where Mandela made his last public appearance at the 2010 football World Cup final, the first time the tournament was held in Africa.
South Africa’s first democratically elected president has strong ties to sport, having famously supported the rugby team when it won the World Cup in 1995, and then the football team a year later when it lifted the African Cup of Nations trophy at the FNB.
Rugby and football were previously examples of South Africa’s racial segregation, with rugby followed by whites and football by blacks until Mandela’s act of reconciliation and unity at the ’95 Rugby World Cup.
The August 17 sports day also will have a music concert and another football game between former South African and Italian internationals. South Africa’s continental champion netball team and leading Springboks try-scorer Bryan Habana will be recognised, the sports ministry said.
South Africa’s minister of sport and minister of arts and culture will visit Mandela’s foundation offices in Johannesburg on Wednesday to deliver messages of support for the ailing former president, they said.
a noble idea to honour Madiba
question is, how are they going to accomodate both games at the same stadium?
will the rugby uprights have soccer goals incorporated? will the field have markings for both games? will they remove the soccer goals after the game and install the rugby posts before the match against Argentina?
Kia Kaha Nelson.
@ nga puhi:
A very noble idea indeed. But it may well backfire on the organisers.
Culturally and (for the most part) racially very different groups of supporters for the two sporting codes could just keep many wannabee fans away.
Also the choice of the Pumas for the Rugby test would not normally attract a packed out crowd.
Then of course there’s the ticket pricing.
Soccer tickets generally sell for about 33% that of a Rugby ticket. So where are they gonna pitch the price.
Maybe they get it all right, the SA sporting public embrace the concept and it’s a huge success and something new for the future.
Let’s see.
@ nga puhi:
Apparently the soccer markings will be white, and the rugby markings will be red. The soccer match will be a friendly, or exhibition match. It could be a very strategic move in bringing South Africans together, or as Scrumdown says, a big flop. But it is a very innovative idea.
The FNB Stadium will never see me again. Traffic chaos, parking chaos, entrance chaos, fights everywhere. The bar code reader at the gates never works properly. Not a nice stadium to visit.
bloem celtic en die cheetahs speel elke jaar in die vrystaat stadion op die selfde dag in n toernooi daar is n 90 min breuk waar die lyne van die soccer dood geverf word die doele verwyder word ,pale op gesit word en die rugby veld se lyne geverf word.as on plaas ballase in bloem dit kan doen kan die manne van gautengeleng ook seker ……
smallies wrote:
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