World Cup Stadium Profile: Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein

Venues And Conditions / Ben Lyttleton / 17 March 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

Bloemfontein is a sports-mad city and a superb venue for South Africa to be playing at

This stadium in sports-mad Bloemfontein will host South Africa's crucial Group A match against 2006 finalists France. Ben Lyttleton tells us about its history and the best sightseeing opportunities for those lucky enough to be there....

"The locals are already counting down to June 22, when host
country South Africa take on 2006 World Cup finalists France in this
sensational arena.Bloemfontein is a sport-mad city whose fans are among the most passionate in the country, and Free State Stadium is the perfect venue for them."

The noise of the local fans will be fierce when they bring their vuvuzelas into the grounds at this World Cup, but if any stadium does not need the additional sound from the African blowing-horn, it is Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein. The locals are already counting down to June 22, when host country South Africa take on 2006 World Cup finalists France in this sensational arena.

Bloemfontein is a sport-mad city whose fans are among the most passionate in the country, and Free State Stadium is the perfect venue for them. It hosts rugby union sides Free State Cheetahs and Central Cheetahs and Premier League football team Bloemfontein Celtic, who play, unsurprisingly, in green-and-white hoops.

Built in 1952, the first major event at the Free State Stadium was the Currie Cup final, when Pierre Spies scored a try to win the Cup for Northern Transvaal against Orange Free State in 1975. Current occupants Free State Cheetahs (formerly Northern Transvaal) won three consecutive Currie Cups between 2005 and 2007. A new stadium was built on the site for the 1995 Rugby World Cup, and it hosted the British Lions in 2009 when they played Free State on their tour of South Africa.

Since a second tier was added to the main grandstand on the western side, the capacity has increased from 36,000 to 48,000 and if recent history is anything to go by, there might be some shocks here: at the 2009 Confederations Cup, USA beat European champions Spain in the semi-finals, so ending the Spanish team's run of 15 successive wins and 35 without defeat.

The stadium will host other first round matches including Japan-Cameroon, Greece-Nigeria, Slovakia-Paraguay, and Switzerland-Honduras. The round of 16 match will see the winners of the Germany-Ghana group take on the runners-up of the England-USA group in what could be an explosive tie.

The winters get chilly in the evening in Bloemfontein, which is the judicial capital of South Africa and the provincial capital of the Free State Province. Temperatures often fall below freezing and it even snowed as recently as July 2007!

Sights for World Cup tourists include the Golden Gate National Park in the eastern Free State, where sandstone cliffs take on dramatic golden hues when the sun strikes the exposed cliffs. The Vredefort Dome is the oldest impact crater in the world, dating back 2,023 million years while the expansive Gariep Dam is a local favourite among the landlocked people of the Free State. Bloemfontein, meaning Fountain of Flowers in Dutch, used to be an independent Boer republic, known as the 'Oranje Free Staat' and its links to Holland can still be seen in its famous annual rose festival held in the city.

Locals call the city Mangaung, which means "Place of the Cheetahs" in Sesotho, the most popular dialect in the region, which is 1400m above sea-level bordering on the semi-arid region of the Karoo.

Famous sporting sons from the city include Allan Donald, Zola Budd, Francois
Steyn and (infamous) Hansie Cronje. JRR Tolkein was also born there before
moving to England aged three.

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