Babalo Ndenze
Metro Writer
THE City of Cape Town has lashed out at the “unprofessional” SA Football Association (Safa) for treating it like “palookas” after the city was snubbed as an Afcon 2013 host city.
Cape Town was instead offered the chance to host a tournament of “B national teams” in 2014.
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula announced SA’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) 2013 host cities on Friday – and Cape Town and Bloemfontein were not included.
Instead, Mbalula offered the two cities the Championship of Nations (Chan) 2014, which is regarded as the lesser of the two tournaments.
Cape Town had wanted a guarantee that Safa would foot 25 percent of the hosting costs, with the National Treasury picking up 50 percent.
Mayoral committee member for events, marketing and tourism Grant Pascoe said yesterday that he had not received an explanation why Cape Town was excluded without even being informed beforehand.
“We had done everything we needed to do and stated our position. But the ministerial task team decided,” said Pascoe.
In addition to asking Safa and the Treasury to cover most of the cost, the city had requested that the Local Organising Committee (LOC) disclose to the host cities how much money it was getting from the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
These concerns were never addressed.
“We did ask a lot of tough questions. We have to comply with legislation. We were told through the media that we’re hosting Chan 2014, which has no international stars playing. It’s like a consolation prize,” said Pascoe.
The Chan competition is exclusively for footballers playing in their domestic leagues.
“We were treated like palookas,” said Pascoe. “It was unprofessional and these are people who are supposed to host a world-class event.
“We received absolutely no responses (to our concerns). Safa have to look at themselves because they’ve done us and the country a disservice.”
One city official said it was
a “typical case and Cape Town was asking too many questions and they (Safa) probably said ‘screw them’.”
Mayor Patricia De Lille’s spokesman Solly Malatsi said it was still a “mystery” why the city had been left out without warning.
“They never responded to our letters. We still don’t know the reason.
“The key thing is we sent them two letters. We did not sign any agreement because we wanted clarity.
“It’s a mystery and surprise to us that Johannesburg was named despite having similar concerns.
“We went to Johannesburg to present a very strong bid. There’s no doubt it would have been great to host Afcon,” said Malatsi.
Safa spokesman Dominic Chimhavi said there was nothing sinister about leaving out Cape Town.
He added that Cape Town’s unhappiness came as no surprise because “losers will always cry foul”.
“But it’s not only Cape Town. There’s also Bloemfontein.
“We are only picking four venues, so people will be left behind.
“The host came with a competitive business case. The ones chosen were winners and they were selected by independent people,” said Chimhavi.
He could not say whether the host cities had been given certain guarantees.
De Lille said on Friday that the City of Cape Town had “deep disappointment” at the decision not to include it as a host city for the Afcon 2013.
She said from the “outset, the city expressed its desire to be part of what we truly believe is a celebration of African football”.