World Cup Stadium Profile: Soccer City, Johannesburg

Venues And Conditions / Ben Lyttleton / 03 March 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

Johannesburg's Soccer City will host the opening match and final of the World Cup

The biggest stadium and the home of the national side, Soccer City will host the opener and the final of South Africa 2010, says Ben Lyttleton.

"There won't be a spare seat in the house when Soccer City hosts the World Cup's eagerly-awaited opening match between South Africa and Mexico on June 11."

The starting-point of any look at the World Cup 2010 stadia has to be Soccer City, the country's main football stadium and the place where the South African FA has its HQ. Unlike some of the other venues for this summer, Soccer City is a football-only arena and with a capacity of 91,141, is the largest in South Africa. The only excecption to this has been a historical one: it was where Nelson Mandela made his first speech in Johannesburg after his release from prison.

There won't be a spare seat in the house when Soccer City hosts the World Cup's eagerly-awaited opening match between South Africa and Mexico. Soccer City will also host four other first-round matches, including three involving former World Cup winners Argentina (South Korea), Brazil (Ivory Coast) and Germany (against Ghana), and the Round of 16 match between the winners of Argentina's group and the second-placed team in the France/Mexico/South Africa/Uruguay group.

After that, lucky fans will see one quarter-final at Soccer City, before it hosts the World Cup final on July 11. South Africans should have good memories of the stadium, as it was also the venue of the 1996 African Cup of Nations final, in which South Africa beat Tunisia 2-0. One year later, Bafana Bafana qualified for the 1998 World Cup finals in France with a 1-0 win over Congo.

The mosaic design of the outside of the stadium is inspired by the iconic African pot known as the calabash, and looks like an African pot being warmed by flames from a pit of fire. Inside, the organizers plan to place pre-cast concrete panels depicting every World Cup goal scored in the stadium within the stands, as a historical document for the future. The designers also took account of Johannesburg's history, as the upper roof is covered by a PTFE membrane in a colour similar to the adjacent mine dumps, remnants of the city's mining past. The city, located on the eastern high-lying plateau in South Africa referred to as the Highveld, is 1,753m above sea-level.

Johannesburg is the most important football city in South Africa, spawning as it has one of the country's oldest clubs, Moroka Swallows, and the Soweto rivals Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. Sites of interest to visit include the Soweto township, and Vilakazi Street, to see the former homes of Mandela and Archbishop Tutu.

Known as the City of Gold, Johannesburg is the business and financial centre of South Africa and accounts for around 12 per cent of the whole country's GDP. Other popular spots for tourists include Sandton Towers shopping plaza and Rosebank Craft and Arts Market. With temperatures rising up to 30°C in June, you can be sure that the 2,100 parks in the city will be packed with sun-seekers.

Tags: Ben Lyttleton, Soccer City, South Africa 2010, World Cup football betting