Safa seeking talks with government about making FNB Stadium home of Bafana

South African Football Association (Safa) officials are set to begin talks with the government over the return of FNB Stadium back to the football body.

Safa gave up ownership of the venue after SA won the right to host the 2010 World Cup and president Danny Jordaan says they feel like outsiders after making the ‘‘ultimate sacrifice”.

‘‘The stadium is something that we want to have a conversation with the government on‚” Jordaan said.

‘‘Remember‚ the (old) stadium was half built (before the 2010 World Cup) but it was owned by football. So we used to live in the front house‚ but now we are living in the back house looking at our front house.

‘‘You know it happens‚ they move you to the back building and somebody else owns the front house. So we want to have a conversation about this.

‘‘When we made the bid for the 2010 World Cup‚ the government made it very clear they could not make an investment in a stadium not owned by the government.

‘‘So we had to hand over the stadium to the City of Johannesburg and the government then invested the money directly through the city and they then completed the stadium.

‘‘We had to do that because it (the FNB Stadium) was the showpiece of the 2010 World Cup — the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony.”

The stadium‚ also known as Soccer City‚ was built in 1989 at a cost of about R52 million‚ but the second phase of the gigantic structure was never completed.

It was originally supposed to get a R364 million upgrade after Fifa awarded SA the World Cup hosting rights in May 2004.

Today’s FNB Stadium does not resemble the old one and its R3 billion upgrade transformed it into an impressive calabash structure that regularly wins international awards‚ and also hosts top music acts as well as rugby and football matches.

Stadium Management has been running the venue on behalf of the City of Johannesburg since 2009 after they won the tender but as Jordaan pointed out‚ they feel like strangers at a venue they used to own once upon a time.

‘‘We have to ask the question: ’What about the sacrifice that we made because the stadium at that stage (when Safa gave it up to government) was worth anything between R300 and R500 million?

‘‘And we had to hand it over for nothing and therefore that is a conversation that we need to have with government.”

Safa will find government more than willing to listen to what they have to say as the Department of Sport and Recreation said in May they want the management of the stadium taken out of private hands.

Sport and recreation director-general Alec Moemi said at the time they have already issued a directive to the Department of Public Works because the current arrangement does not benefit national teams.

Jordaan said they hope to begin talks with government soon.

— TimesLIVEl.