Teboho Setena
The 14 nations featured in the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) Cup Tournament will play their matches in Bloemfontein from 4 to 15 June. At the draw conducted on Wednesday, 21 May, the Dr RP Molemela Stadium and the Toyota Stadium were announced as the venues where all the fixtures will be played.
The participating countries include South Africa and Morocco, with the latter being invited as the only country not part of the 16 Southern African Development Community (Sadc) states.
The nations featured in the upcoming tournament will even share training venues in the Free State’s capital given the challenge of insufficient suitable training venues. They were divided into four groups during the draw.
Delivering their welcoming addresses of the Cosafa tournament last Wednesday, both Ntombizanele Sifuba, MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, and Gregory Nthatisi, executive mayor of the Mangaung Metro, described the 14 nations competition as an opportunity to profile Mangaung as a sport hub and positioning the city as a tourism attraction for sports.
Sifuba took her queue from Nelson Mandela’s famous quote on sport: “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.”
Nthatisi repeated the metro was taking advantage of Bloemfontein being central in South Africa to hosting big sporting events. The metro’s commitment to hosting the football tournament is reportedly valued at a whopping R6 million.
Nthatisi conceded the appalling conditions and serious problems the municipality is facing. The municipality has received backlash from opposition political parties such as the DA for its decision to prioritise the tournament over critical, basic service delivery towards residents and the ever-crumbling road infrastructure.
Botshabelo, which is the biggest township in the Free State and duly part of the Mangaung Metro Municipality (MMM), is an equally strong football hub but has not been allocated any matches. The town’s exclusion is despite strong prospects of a looming fixture congestion at the two hosting stadiums. With no matches allocated to Botshabelo to host at the Kaizer Sebothelo Stadium, football supporters will have to travel to Bloemfontein to watch the 14 countries clash.
Sipho Gxilisha, chairman of Mathaithai FC which campaigns in the semi-professional Free State ABC Motsepe League, expressed mixed emotions regarding the highly anticipated international tournament.FS club continues quest for cup
“Firstly, it is great to see our province hosting such a great professional tournament which obviously comes at a great cost. We hope to see more financial support given to the local teams to grow our football.
“However, Botshabelo could have at least been given an opportunity to host one group of the tournament. A tournament like this does not come often and affords our province access to professional football, to different areas especially Botshabelo (the Kaiser Sebothelo Stadium) as it is not even far from Bloemfontein. That would also be a great opportunity to improve the standard of the only football facility we have in Botshabelo,” said Gxilisha.
“I do not know the possible reasons behind the planning committee’s decision to exclude Botshabelo as one of the hosting stadiums.
“Remember, even the hawkers and security officers would be able to benefit from the process. Bear in mind, Bloemfontein has already been capable and privileged to host Bafana Bafana games and Premier Soccer League (PSL) matches of the Marumo Gallants. So, spreading the wings to Botshabelo in the Cosafa games would have been a great move for the fans and the province respectively,” said Gxilisha.
Gxilisha’s team is one of two clubs from Botshabelo to place the metro and the province on the map, reaching the Nedbank Cup’s last-16 group stage. The team attained this in 2022 followed by the other, D’ General, which reached the same group stage in 2024. The latter team, D’ General of Nyakallo Leine and Kamohelo Mokotjo, was unable to host its home games at the stadium in Botshabelo,D’ General eyes quarter-final. The PSL management team flagged serious discrepancies pertaining the general conditions of the stadium during an inspection last year. The conditions were due to neglect of maintenance of the stadium.
BloemExpress was unable to get acomment from the metro regarding the exclusion of the stadium in Botshabelo to host any Cosafa tournament matches, before print.
