Alhaji Righteous De Ambitious: World Cup 2010 Blog: “How Sustainable is a World Cup?” plus 2 more

Monday, February 8, 2010

World Cup 2010 Blog: “How Sustainable is a World Cup?” plus 2 more

How Sustainable is a World Cup?
Photo: Mohamed Zidan Loves Shrimp
Euro 2012 Qualifying Draw

Posted: 07 Feb 2010 05:02 PM PST

soccercity

…or European Championship for that matter?

I recently came across an article (Warning: Google Translate content) on a German website called Stadionwelt (Stadium World), that dealt with the rather grim reality in post Euro 2004 Portugal, or better the post Euro 2004 SuperLiga.

The article was about the possibility that a couple of stadiums, that were either expensively renovated or built from the ground up for UEFA’s showpiece tournament, could be teared down again in the near future. The stadiums turned out to be far too big for the local clubs. For example, second division side SC Beira Mar from the small town of Aveiro competes in the 30.000 capacity Estádio Municipal de Aveiro, built for €94m. Third/Fourth division sides Farense and Louletano, from the equally small towns of Faro and Loulé, share the 30.000 capacity Estádio Algarve renovated for €61m. First division side U.D. Leiria plays in the 30.000 capacity Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa built for €20m, and averages around 4000 per game so far this season – with a home game crowd of 22.000 against Benfica improving the average of otherwise a couple of hundred up to one or two thousand per game. I guess the local authorities never really expected that the clubs’ rent could help repay the money borrowed to build the grounds, but maybe they at least hoped that they could cover running costs. Yet, it seems this modest goal isn’t too realistic either, resulting in some politicians suggesting that it may make more sense to simply tear some of the stadiums down again, to at least stop losing more money with them.

I guess, UEFA couldn’t care less what happens with the stadium infrastructure in the host country, once they handed out the trophy, counted the money and moved on. And it’s certainly also up to the host to have a plan for the stadiums beyond the tournament. Still, Portugal is actually a rather tame example, as the stadiums aren’t that big and that expensive – at least relative to the minimum requirements of a FIFA World Cup.

In a letter sent by FIFA to nations bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, FIFA “states that around 12 stadia with a minimum capacity of 40.000 will be needed to host the tournament. The stadium for the final will have to have at least 80.000 seats.”

These requirements are completely disconnected from the realities in the majority of football leagues around the globe. The German Bundesliga is currently the only league that averages over 40.000 per game and that has/had twelve or more clubs in the first division with 40.000+ average attendances. The other big European leagues in England, Italy and France have the potential to fill stadiums of that capacity as well. Spain seems to feel that a joint World Cup bid with Portugal makes more sense for them. The US can of course just pick twelve American football stadiums of their liking. A country like Brazil, in the still slightly distant future and given current economic growth continues, could find them useful as well. Then you’d need to wait for some Asian countries and India to not just support Manchester United, but actually go and watch football in their local leagues, which currently isn’t happening. You could even make an argument, that the US might be better off building a few smaller football specific grounds for a World Cup, that have a chance to actually be of use to an MLS franchise later on.

The South African Premier Soccer League averaged around 8000 in 2008/2009, and even if the World Cup gives the local league a major boost, you can already easily predict that the beautiful stadiums built for the World Cup will be largely underutilized once Sepp Blatter handed out the trophy. South Africa will have to deal with the costs and FIFA with the money they earned.

Photo: Mohamed Zidan Loves Shrimp

Posted: 07 Feb 2010 04:58 PM PST

Mohamed Zidan

Egypt’s striker Mohamed Zidan decided that his head is the perfect platform to declare his love for his favorite sea food.

Meanwhile, if you love Egyptian football: we are looking for someone to continue Tamim’s work over at the Egypt Worldcupblog.

(Photo: Christof Koepsel/Bongarts/Getty Images)

Euro 2012 Qualifying Draw

Posted: 07 Feb 2010 01:07 PM PST

uefaeuro2012logos

The biggest sporting event of 2010 will undoubtedly be the Euro 2012 qualifiers due to begin on September 3rd and 4th. At least for the alpine micro state of Liechtenstein, drawn into Group I together with Euro title holders, current cream of the crop of world football and by then potential World Cup winners Spain. If you are not a micro citizen you might want to stick to the World Cup in South Africa of course.

Here’s the rest of today’s draw for the qualifying stage of the European Championships 2012 in Poland and Ukraine (taken straight from uefa.com):

euro2012qualifiers

The nine group winners and the best runner-up will qualify directly. Play-offs (seeded if needed) between the other eight runner-ups will determine the remaining four tickets to Poland/Ukraine.

In Group A, Germany get to visit their neighbors from right across the border and right across the street. Scandinavia has been neatly packaged into Group E and H. Russia looks for revenge against Slovenia, and will settle for Slovakia in Group B. Group D will serve up the long awaited rematch of that epic Euro 2008 encounter between France and Romania. Group F is Malta’s best ever miniscule chance to make it to the European Championship finals. In other words: some exciting international breaks are once again looming on the horizon.

Your thoughts?

For team specific analysis head over to our European national team blogs.