Africa-Press – Eswatini. This is what the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) says will cost the country if a new state-of-the art stadium could be built from scratch. The total estimated cost is E500 million.
The estimates were disclosed by EFA Chief Executive Officer, Frederick Mngomezulu when responding to concerns from journalists following the football mother body’s retreat held at Hilton Garden Inn from last Thursday to Saturday.
The newsmen wanted to know why the association could not build its own stadium with the funds used for rentals in the neighbouring country.
They also wanted to know if it was possible to solicit funds from FIFA to undertake the project.
The football powerhouse had been paying large sums of money in utilising the Mbombela Stadium in South Africa to be used by the national team Sihlangu for its CAF and FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
The arrangement came about after the Mavuso Sports Centre and Somhlolo National Stadium were banned by the continental football body, the Confederation of African Football.
Mngomezulu said it was impossible for FIFA to construct a stadium on behalf of the country.
“On the stadium issue, we can start by clarifying that FIFA won’t be able to build a stadium for the country because if that happens, it will mean they have to build stadiums for all the 210 member countries, making this dream impossible. Building a stadium that can accommodate at least 20 000 to 25 000 people can cost the country more than half a billion, which is a budget way above what we have as EFA,” said Mngomezulu.
The CEO further unpacked that the association spent about E40 million a year, with E16 million going to national team activities, which makes it hard to have a national stadium as that can mean they need to suspend all activities not even for a one year but a couple of years, which is nearly impossible.
Mngomezulu said the only thing they opted to do as an association was to go ahead with the construction of the Manzini Region Technical Centre and to add a sitting area at Ka-Langa Technical Centre, while the Mkhuzweni Technical Centre will have a drainage system constructed.
A gym facility is also in the pipeline for the technical centre at Lobamba and all the projects are expected to be completed this year.
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