FIFA 2010 World Cup Local Organising Committee (LOC) CEO Danny Jordaan says that he is confident about the state and quality of the World Cup stadiums, adding that the inspection process at all stadiums has been completed, following 35 meetings to monitor the progress of the construction of the infrastructure and make sure that the LOC stays within the allocated budget.

He says that the sports infrastructure for the FIFA World Cup was completed on time owing to the hard work and high level of delivery from the architects, construction teams and grass experts.

However, he believes that there is a lot of work to be done to improve sports infrastructure at grassroots level. He says that in the 52 South African Football Association (Safa) regions across the country, there are projects in place to erect artificial soccer pitches. This is a way to enable sports infrastructure sustainability, while dealing with social issues, such as environmental issues and other issues affecting the youth. He adds that the main stumbling block to such projects is finance, as government is the main funder of these projects.

Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhenkesi Stofile, in his 2009 Budget speech stated that, the department, in conjunction with German bank of construction and development Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), was in the pro-cess of establishing a Football for Boys and Girls programme, focusing on the construction of about 120 kick-abouts, which are smaller-sized football fields.

This programme will focus on the improvement of about 30 football pitches, as well as the provision of certain basic football equipment. The programme will also include training and educational activities, including coaches, referees and ground maintenance courses, the promotion of football for girls, first aid, conflict resolution, HIV/Aids, education as well as violence prevention skills.

Meanwhile, 2010 World Cup LOC chairperson Dr Irvin Khoza, says that issues of ownership of grounds and pitches vest in the local municipalities. This can be a challenge when upgrades and construction need to take place in rural areas because permission is first needed and the process to acquire permission to work on the grounds can, at times, be a lengthy one. He adds that the focus on sports infrastructure development has now spread countrywide to provinces, such as the remote Northern Cape, rural KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo.

Another challenge Khoza mentions is the issue of maintenance. He says that it is expensive to maintain a stadium without events taking place at that stadium. “But South Africa is a soccer-loving country and I am sure that the stadiums will not be ghost stadiums”, he concludes.