FIFA Updates

Women carry goods on their heads as they pass the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit. The stadium’s roof is supported by a circle of 18 orange, iron ‘giraffes’. Photograph: Denis Farrell/Associated Press

Lusito Dlamini stares up at the 18 orange iron “giraffes” holding up Mbombela Stadium, then down at the filthy puddle from which his neighbours draw water. “We’ve got giraffes, beautiful giraffes, but we don’t have money, we don’t have work,” says Dlamini, 31 and unemployed. “We were promised the stadium would change our lives, but it never happened.”

There is a concern that has haunted Africa’s first World Cup since it was awarded six years ago: that the abiding image would be of multi-million pound stadiums, surrounded by craters of squalor, hosting a western spectacle for western fans that mocked the plight of the poor.

In Nelspruit the juxtaposition is no mere photojournalist’s confection. A magnificent venue with zebra-striped seating has risen amid bush and hills, close to the celebrated Kruger Park. But residents of a neighbouring township crouch in the shadow of this gleaming monument to Fifa and wonder why.

The Mbombela Stadium, costing R1.3bn (£118m), will host four of 64 matches in the World Cup, which works out at almost £30m per game, or £327,500 per minute. On 20 June, Italy’s millionaire footballers will be here, just a few hundred yards and a barbed wire fence from the people of Mataffin township, but they might as well be playing on a different planet.

“We’ll hear the sound from the stadium but won’t know what’s happening,” said Dlamini, who lives in a house with four people to a room. “We can’t go inside. We can’t afford tickets and they failed to invite us. Even my mother doesn’t know what’s inside the stadium. Is there grass or not? Are the seats blue? They didn’t give us the chance.”

Mataffin is a rambling collection of concrete and tin shacks, some with walls patched up with plastic sheets and corrugated roofs weighted with tyres and rocks. Dust swirls up into the faces of children as cars travel down a dirt track. Many homes lack electricity, functioning toilets or running water, so residents often risk drawing water from a pipe leaking into the mud.

They feel let down because local council officials made them expect much more. The Mdluli clan, which owned the land in question, accepted a token R1 (9p) from the council in 2006 so the stadium could be built there. A high court judge last year blocked the deal, accusing the council of being like colonial settlers who tried to buy land for “mirrors and shiny buttons”. The Mdluli were awarded nearly R8m for the land and promised electricity, new schools and other infrastructure. But progress has been painfully slow.

Dlamini said: “They promised us they were going to build new houses, clean water, sanitation, tarred roads, infrastructure – but it never happened. It’s the politics of South Africa – most of them are corrupt. They put corruption first instead of helping the country. This province, Mpumalanga, is best in corruption.”

People in Mataffin have not accepted the situation meekly. A series of public protests led to streets being blocked, tyres burned and a police car set on fire. Police fired rubber bullets at those in their way, including children and the elderly. “Some of the victims are crippled, even today,” Dlamini said. “It’s a disgrace to shoot someone of 75 with a rubber bullet.”

A spark for the anger was the community’s primary and secondary schools, closed in 2007 because of their proximity to the stadium site. The buildings were used as offices for the construction company and will become Fifa’s Nelspruit offices during the tournament.

Children were promised new schools in six months. Instead it took three years, during which they were housed in tin structures. Nineteen-year-old Nicholas Hlanya, a member of the school representative council, recalled: “There was no air conditioning so it was either very hot or very cold. They had said they had wanted the teaching and learning process to continue, but when it was hot it stopped because we went outside for fresh air. It could be hot for a week, so we stopped the process.”

Hlanya, who was arrested after one of the temporary classrooms was torched last year, continued: “Money disappeared into the wrong hands. The promised things didn’t happen. The government says education is a priority but it wasn’t for the community of Mataffin. They benefit tourists but we ended up losing our school.”

Hlanya last week stood outside the prefab classrooms, some with broken windows, and gazed at Mbombela Stadium, which welcomes the jamboree with Chile v Honduras on 16 June. “I don’t blame the World Cup but the people in charge,” he said. “There will only be four games at the stadium. We have lost our school, everything, because of four games.”

The new schools have finally opened, with sponsorship from a mobile phone company, although young children must now walk a mile to get there, passing an electricity substation, instead of the previous 200 yards.

Not everyone is convinced that other improvements will follow. James Maseko, 30, deputy chairman of the ward committee for Mataffin, said: “The authorities still say they will keep their promises, but the community is not sure it’s going to happen. When tourists visit, I think they will try to keep them away from the poor. I feel bad about that because this situation needs to be improved. The only way to improve it is to let others in the world see the situation.”

But, overall, Maseko remains optimistic about the World Cup. “We feel honoured by the whole world. It’s a celebration for many Africans. It improves the lives of many poor Africans through job opportunities. We had some disappointments but now everything has been sorted.”

The strife around Mbombela Stadium has taken place against an extraordinary backdrop of alleged irregular tenders, overpayments, conflicts of interest, tax evasion and even murders. In the past two years eight officials have either died under suspicious circumstances or been murdered, according to South African press reports, apparently because they were blocking access to stadium tenders.

The council speaker Jimmy Mohlala, the leading whistle-blower on alleged corruption, was killed by masked men outside his home last year. Sammy Mpatlanyane, the provincial arts and culture spokesperson, was shot in his bed five months ago. The mayor of Nelspruit, Lassy Chiwayo, has been named on three reported “hit lists” of targets to be shot or poisoned.

Chiwayo said: “The murder of Jimmy really does point to a link with the work he did, fighting to get to the bottom of the tenders. We learned about lists from the media. We cannot discount the possibility of anyone who takes a similar stance being targeted.”

Chiwayo took office in October 2008 and admits he inherited a crisis around the stadium construction. “The institution was on the verge of collapsing due to political instability and rampant maladministration. It was dysfunctional. The decision to locate the stadium there was to benefit the people, but clearly they focused on the stadium at the expense of the people. There was no township development plan.”

He said that he fought for the two schools to be built and new housing and electricity and water infrastructure was on its way. In the meantime, he acknowledged, “it’s a crime against humanity that you have this beautiful baby towering in the skies above this slum.”

South Africa vies with Brazil for the unwanted crown of most unequal society in the world. President Jacob Zuma has hailed the World Cup as the republic’s best marketing opportunity since the end of racial apartheid 16 years ago. Officials insist that the R33bn spent by the government will benefit all with new jobs, improved infrastructure and a priceless boost in global profile.

But such claims have been tested to destruction in Nelspruit. Once the four matches are over, the great unknown is what fate awaits the stadium.It was still rough around the edges when the Guardian toured three months ago: a group of journalists got stuck in a lift and a giant banner collapsed behind the heads of Fifa officials at a press conference. The pitch, which at that time was a sandpit, has at least now grown grass.

Richard Spoor, a human rights lawyer who acts for the Mataffin community, said: “How are we going to use a stadium like this? We don’t have the cultural, social and sporting events to sustain it. There was supposed to be a precinct around the stadium to provide services – a hotel, a gym – but that didn’t happen. It might be a white elephant.”

“People here feel betrayed and lied to and cheated. The promise of the World Cup was lost through corruption, double-dealing and sleaze.”

Women carry goods on their heads as they pass the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit. The stadium’s roof is supported by a circle of 18 orange, iron ‘giraffes’. Photograph: Denis Farrell/Associated Press

Lusito Dlamini stares up at the 18 orange iron “giraffes” holding up Mbombela Stadium, then down at the filthy puddle from which his neighbours draw water. “We’ve got giraffes, beautiful giraffes, but we don’t have money, we don’t have work,” says Dlamini, 31 and unemployed. “We were promised the stadium would change our lives, but it never happened.”

There is a concern that has haunted Africa’s first World Cup since it was awarded six years ago: that the abiding image would be of multi-million pound stadiums, surrounded by craters of squalor, hosting a western spectacle for western fans that mocked the plight of the poor.

In Nelspruit the juxtaposition is no mere photojournalist’s confection. A magnificent venue with zebra-striped seating has risen amid bush and hills, close to the celebrated Kruger Park. But residents of a neighbouring township crouch in the shadow of this gleaming monument to Fifa and wonder why.

The Mbombela Stadium, costing R1.3bn (£118m), will host four of 64 matches in the World Cup, which works out at almost £30m per game, or £327,500 per minute. On 20 June, Italy’s millionaire footballers will be here, just a few hundred yards and a barbed wire fence from the people of Mataffin township, but they might as well be playing on a different planet.

“We’ll hear the sound from the stadium but won’t know what’s happening,” said Dlamini, who lives in a house with four people to a room. “We can’t go inside. We can’t afford tickets and they failed to invite us. Even my mother doesn’t know what’s inside the stadium. Is there grass or not? Are the seats blue? They didn’t give us the chance.”

Mataffin is a rambling collection of concrete and tin shacks, some with walls patched up with plastic sheets and corrugated roofs weighted with tyres and rocks. Dust swirls up into the faces of children as cars travel down a dirt track. Many homes lack electricity, functioning toilets or running water, so residents often risk drawing water from a pipe leaking into the mud.

They feel let down because local council officials made them expect much more. The Mdluli clan, which owned the land in question, accepted a token R1 (9p) from the council in 2006 so the stadium could be built there. A high court judge last year blocked the deal, accusing the council of being like colonial settlers who tried to buy land for “mirrors and shiny buttons”. The Mdluli were awarded nearly R8m for the land and promised electricity, new schools and other infrastructure. But progress has been painfully slow.

Dlamini said: “They promised us they were going to build new houses, clean water, sanitation, tarred roads, infrastructure – but it never happened. It’s the politics of South Africa – most of them are corrupt. They put corruption first instead of helping the country. This province, Mpumalanga, is best in corruption.”

People in Mataffin have not accepted the situation meekly. A series of public protests led to streets being blocked, tyres burned and a police car set on fire. Police fired rubber bullets at those in their way, including children and the elderly. “Some of the victims are crippled, even today,” Dlamini said. “It’s a disgrace to shoot someone of 75 with a rubber bullet.”

A spark for the anger was the community’s primary and secondary schools, closed in 2007 because of their proximity to the stadium site. The buildings were used as offices for the construction company and will become Fifa’s Nelspruit offices during the tournament.

Children were promised new schools in six months. Instead it took three years, during which they were housed in tin structures. Nineteen-year-old Nicholas Hlanya, a member of the school representative council, recalled: “There was no air conditioning so it was either very hot or very cold. They had said they had wanted the teaching and learning process to continue, but when it was hot it stopped because we went outside for fresh air. It could be hot for a week, so we stopped the process.”

Hlanya, who was arrested after one of the temporary classrooms was torched last year, continued: “Money disappeared into the wrong hands. The promised things didn’t happen. The government says education is a priority but it wasn’t for the community of Mataffin. They benefit tourists but we ended up losing our school.”

Hlanya last week stood outside the prefab classrooms, some with broken windows, and gazed at Mbombela Stadium, which welcomes the jamboree with Chile v Honduras on 16 June. “I don’t blame the World Cup but the people in charge,” he said. “There will only be four games at the stadium. We have lost our school, everything, because of four games.”

The new schools have finally opened, with sponsorship from a mobile phone company, although young children must now walk a mile to get there, passing an electricity substation, instead of the previous 200 yards.

Not everyone is convinced that other improvements will follow. James Maseko, 30, deputy chairman of the ward committee for Mataffin, said: “The authorities still say they will keep their promises, but the community is not sure it’s going to happen. When tourists visit, I think they will try to keep them away from the poor. I feel bad about that because this situation needs to be improved. The only way to improve it is to let others in the world see the situation.”

But, overall, Maseko remains optimistic about the World Cup. “We feel honoured by the whole world. It’s a celebration for many Africans. It improves the lives of many poor Africans through job opportunities. We had some disappointments but now everything has been sorted.”

The strife around Mbombela Stadium has taken place against an extraordinary backdrop of alleged irregular tenders, overpayments, conflicts of interest, tax evasion and even murders. In the past two years eight officials have either died under suspicious circumstances or been murdered, according to South African press reports, apparently because they were blocking access to stadium tenders.

The council speaker Jimmy Mohlala, the leading whistle-blower on alleged corruption, was killed by masked men outside his home last year. Sammy Mpatlanyane, the provincial arts and culture spokesperson, was shot in his bed five months ago. The mayor of Nelspruit, Lassy Chiwayo, has been named on three reported “hit lists” of targets to be shot or poisoned.

Chiwayo said: “The murder of Jimmy really does point to a link with the work he did, fighting to get to the bottom of the tenders. We learned about lists from the media. We cannot discount the possibility of anyone who takes a similar stance being targeted.”

Chiwayo took office in October 2008 and admits he inherited a crisis around the stadium construction. “The institution was on the verge of collapsing due to political instability and rampant maladministration. It was dysfunctional. The decision to locate the stadium there was to benefit the people, but clearly they focused on the stadium at the expense of the people. There was no township development plan.”

He said that he fought for the two schools to be built and new housing and electricity and water infrastructure was on its way. In the meantime, he acknowledged, “it’s a crime against humanity that you have this beautiful baby towering in the skies above this slum.”

South Africa vies with Brazil for the unwanted crown of most unequal society in the world. President Jacob Zuma has hailed the World Cup as the republic’s best marketing opportunity since the end of racial apartheid 16 years ago. Officials insist that the R33bn spent by the government will benefit all with new jobs, improved infrastructure and a priceless boost in global profile.

But such claims have been tested to destruction in Nelspruit. Once the four matches are over, the great unknown is what fate awaits the stadium.It was still rough around the edges when the Guardian toured three months ago: a group of journalists got stuck in a lift and a giant banner collapsed behind the heads of Fifa officials at a press conference. The pitch, which at that time was a sandpit, has at least now grown grass.

Richard Spoor, a human rights lawyer who acts for the Mataffin community, said: “How are we going to use a stadium like this? We don’t have the cultural, social and sporting events to sustain it. There was supposed to be a precinct around the stadium to provide services – a hotel, a gym – but that didn’t happen. It might be a white elephant.”

“People here feel betrayed and lied to and cheated. The promise of the World Cup was lost through corruption, double-dealing and sleaze.”

David Beckham hands England’s World Cup 2018 bid book to Sepp Blatter. Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

David Beckham has handed over England’s 2018 World Cup bid book to Fifa with the message “football runs through our veins”. At a ceremony at Fifa headquarters in Zurich, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder spoke of the “passion and emotion” England could bring to the tournament as he led a five-strong delegation to Switzerland.

“I’m here on behalf of our fans,” Beckham said. “Football runs through our veins. We are all brought up on it. It’s truly an honour to be here. On behalf of our team, the delegation and our fans, we present you with our bid book.”

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In thanking the English delegation – second among the nine candidates to present their dossiers – the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, referred to England as the “motherland” of football and disclosed he had already spoken to the new British prime minister David Cameron, who had personally endorsed the bid. “Yesterday I received a phone call from the new prime minister,” Blatter said. “Not only did he express his determination to be behind the bid but he is also behind the World Cup in 2010.”

Beckham, England’s most capped outfield player and set to take a coaching role with the national side at this summer’s tournament, said winning the vote to stage the 2018 World Cup would rank among his greatest achievements. “It would certainly be up there,” he said. “What the prospect of having the World Cup brings is huge. I know because I’ve experienced it.”

The front cover of England’s bid book. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

The next milestone in the bid process is Fifa’s technical inspection at the end of August. This ended in tears for England’s ill-fated 2006 campaign when they were judged worse than South Africa and Germany. This time around, however, England bid officials are confident they will suffer no such setback.

Ian Riley, the director of England 2018’s technical bid, had the same role for South Africa’s bid for the 2006 and 2010 tournaments and has been careful to ensure there will be no repeat. “I genuinely believe we present a low-risk option to Fifa,” Riley said. “One of the biggest risk profiles of staging any major event is construction and we have a really good balance of existing stadiums and new builds and I think that alleviates any risk concerns that you may have.”

The final vote will be taken by Fifa’s executive committee on 2 December.

It is expected that 2018 will go to Europe, where Russia plus joint bids by Spain-Portugal and Holland-Belgium are up against England. The other countries expected to fight it out for 2022 are Australia, the United States, Qatar, Korea and Japan.