The 2010 Soccer World Cup stadium, Mbombela, will be the permanent home of the Premier Soccer League campaigners Mpumalanga Black Aces, with the KaNyamazane Stadium as the alternative.
This was revealed by the team’s Grant Nicholls during a mini press briefing on Tuesday at Mbombela Stadium.
He said this move would result in the team setting up permanent offices there.
“This team has a history here. We have roots here, and there is absolutely no taking the team outside this province. We will have an offi ce here and we have already started negotiations with the Pumas Rugby Club, who has made the stadium its permanent home and has already set up offices here,” he said.
He revealed that they were approached by other provinces who wanted to adopt Aces and have them use their stadiums, but refused mainly because they knew this team belonged to Mpumalanga and its people.
He said since they would be permanently based here, they would involve communities and even scout players from local and rural areas. “We believe we will start fi lling the stadium now.
We are going to be more visible and will take the team to our people. We want to be involved in community football, and we are currently considering starting our own women soccer team. We also want to arrange buses for our supporters out there so that they can attend our games.
We are certain that this move will benefi t local communities in many ways.”
He said the deal was about 99 per cent done, all that was left to do, was to sign the documents with the Mbombela Local Municipality and the Mbombela Stadium. Aces coach Clive Barker said he was delighted about the team’s decision.
“The players are also happy about it. This a magnificent stadium – I think it is one of the best in the world.”
He added that this season Aces would play better football than previously, since he had brought in quality, with talented players like Collins Mbesuma and the Ghanaian international, Edwin Gyimah.
Speaking on behalf of Mbombela Local Municipality’ s mayor, Cllr Sibusiso Mathonsi, Cllr Zayd Boroko said the municipality believed that Aces’ decision to make this their permanent home would have great economic spin-offs.
“One of the most important things, is that our children will get the opportunity to be recruited into the team’s developmental programme,” he said.
The stadium manager Roelf Kotze said, “We are very excited about this, we are to date one of only two stadiums in the country that house both a rugby and a soccer team.
This is a very exciting prospect,” he said.
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