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Bafana ditch Sandown high school for Wits University for the World Cup

Nie Cele and Natasha Bezuidenhout

Storylines have changed again and Bafana Bafana will now use Sturrock Park at Wits University in Milpark as their training venue for the Fifa World Cup and not Sandown high school as previously reported.

But a couple of million rand will be needed to make the venue meet Fifa standards. The announcement was made at a press briefing by SA Football Association (Safa) chief executive officer Leslie Sedibe on Thursday afternoon.
According to Sedibe the contract has been signed and sealed, unlike that of Sandown high school which continued dragging for days.
“The venue was inspected by coach Carlos Alberto Parreira and he is happy. It’s a closed deal and workers have already started fixing floodlights,” he said.
Pressed about what went wrong with the earlier plans to use Sandown high school, he quoted three lines from an e-mail sent by school governing body chairman Oupa Keele. One of them reads ‘we are not making national decisions here but business decisions’. Sedibe further said, “This is the kind of person we are in negotiation with,” Sedibe said.
Asked what needs to be done to make Sturrock Park ready for Bafana, he mentioned among other things the drainage and irrigation systems.
Sedibe also revealed the venue would be ready by end of May.
Also present at the press briefing was Bidvest Wits University Football Club boss Stan Whiting, who told journalists the institution had played its role, and he was happy that at the end of the tournament Wits would benefit through such a legacy project.
Meanwhile Keele told the Chronicle that during negotiations Safa had wanted everything for free. “It was a business transaction and their rental offer was zero. We said that we did not work with zero amounts and preferred real numbers,” he said.
Keele added that the contract had been one sided. “We are disappointed because after we agreed in principle and in good faith we received an e-mail to say they found an alternative venue. They didn’t even tell us in a discussion but told us via an e-mail. We are sorry that they were not honest and went behind our backs.”
Sedibe said that Safa had identified various facilities in the vicinity of Southern Sun Grayston, Bafana’s base camp for the World Cup. These included Crawford, St Stithians, Wits and Sandown high school.
“Ultimately this facility (Wits) meets our requirements and it will remain a football pitch,” said Sedibe.

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Did you know?

• Bafana Bafana are in a training camp in Brazil.
• They are expected to play four practice matches with the local teams before they head for Paraguay and Germany.
• Netherlands team will also be training in the the eastern part of Wits.
• Southern Sun Grayston will remain the official Bafana base during the World Cup.

Stories related to:
Bafana Bafana in Sandton
Bafana training base
Sandown high school