Times Of Swaziland: PLANS TO DELIVER STADIUM WITHIN FIVE YEARS

PLANS TO DELIVER STADIUM WITHIN FIVE YEARS
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Sports Reporter on 17/04/2024 10:35:00


MBABANE – It seems government has finally attached timelines for delivering
the much-needed stadium.
Sihlangu host their official games in South Africa, incurring huge expenses on
top of missing out on gate takings.  This is because the country’s national
stadium, Somhlolo cannot host category ‘A’ international matches, pending
approval by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The stadium headache
could  be a thing of the past following plans to deliver the essential facility
within five years.
This was disclosed by the minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs in an
exclusive interview with this publication, two days ago. “We are equally
concerned about the current situation. As a ministry, our plan for the time
being is to make sure that Somhlolo meets the required international standard.
Even though we don’t have the actual date at the moment, on when this will be
achieved, we strongly believe that it will happen very soon. In terms of the
future, we are working very hard to have a stadium. We have strategies in place
to deal with that and we are hopeful that will happen within the five years in
office,” said the minister.
Reports suggest that constructing a proper stadium costs around E2 billion. The
minister, on the other, said government was equally concerned about the
underperformance of the national team, Sihlangu. Each year, government pumps in
at least E5 million into the underperforming side that has never qualified for
any tournament in history. “At this stage, we can’t say we need more money
to perform better. We need a vigorous plan to identify good football talent. We
need to go out there in rural communities to identify players and nurture this
raw talent with the right technical skills to reach for the stars. Through
Ingwenyama Cup, we have learnt to bring all communities on board in talent
identification,” said the minister.