The Political Economy of Mega-Stadiums and the Underdevelopment of Grassroots Football in South Africa

Abstract

As South Africa prepares to host the 2010 World Cup finals, public and scholarly discourses have largely overlooked the consequences of interactions between global sport, professional leagues, and grassroots football. Yet analysing this dynamic is important because it challenges bold claims made by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and South African boosters about the 2010 World Cup's capacity to deliver economic, political, and social benefits to the nation-state. Drawing on South African government and media sources, FIFA documents, as well as interviews and secondary literature, this article examines the policy decisions that inspired the construction of a lavish new stadium on Green Point Common in Cape Town and then considers the potential effects of this strategy on sports in poor communities. Preparations for 2010 reveal how South Africa's engagement with global capitalism is not mitigating apartheid's cruel legacies of racism, widespread material poverty, and extreme inequality. Instead, as Ebrahim argues, preliminary evidence suggests that current World Cup strategies are actually undermining the grassroots game.