PRETORIA: The embattled South African Football Association, despite all its problems, has called on the government to hand control of the Soccer City stadium back to the national body.

Briefing Parliament’s sport committee, SAFA president Kirsten Nematandani said that the SAFA had spent $65m on constructing the stadium before handing over the venue to the government before the 2010 World Cup in the country. The Johannesburg stadium staged the opening match and the final of the competition.

Nematandani said later: “We are still sitting with a very sore heart to lose our own facility. We want what belongs to us back.”

Earlier in the briefing, SAFA executives had admitted to MPs that they were in the process of selling off assets to address a ‘liquidity gap.’

SAFA, already mired in a matchfixing scandal which will be assessed by a quasi-governmental inquiry, has significant debts and questions were raised at the weekend about the destination of some of the funds from the World Cup legacy fund.

READ MORE AT:

Wednesday, May 1, 2013 Havelange quits FIFA position in wake of ISL probe  FIFA president Sepp Blatter has stated he has “no doubt” that a repeat of the damage caused by the ISL scandal will not happen again after Joao Havelange (pictured) stepped down as the governing body’s honorary president following a report into the case by the organisation’s Ethics Commission…. read more SAFA wants to regain control of Soccer City stadium The South African Football Association (SAFA) has called on the government to hand control of the Soccer City stadium back to the national body…. read more Rauball to seek re-election as DFL president Reinhard Rauball has announced his intention to run for a third term as president of the German Football League (DFL)…. read more Bundesliga anointed world’s top league Germany’s 1.Bundesliga has been crowned as the world’s leading football league, according to the findings of a new study…. read more Darfur to stage Cecafa Club Championships The Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) has announced that the Darfur region in western Sudan will stage the 2013 Cecafa Club Championships in June…. read more Prefer your news online? Stopped receiving your usual copy? Click here! Football management – a precarious profession Anil Matharu, senior associate in the Sports Group at Harbottle & Lewis LLP, discusses football management and employment law…. Sacking football managers can be an expensive and reputationally damaging business for both clubs and managers. There are, however, a number of ways in which the effects of what has traditionally been considered as part and parcel of the football industry can be mitigated…. read more