Mbebe promises successful Chan

Sikhumbuzo Moyo
SOUTH Africa has promised to stage a world class event when they play host to the 2014 African Nations Championship.
Mvuzo Mbebe, the chief executive of the Chan local organising committee,  who is in Zimbabwe for the AU Region Five meetings, said the competition would make Africa proud in the eyes of the international community.
Mbebe said this at the Bulawayo Press Club on Tuesday evening.

He said their belief to stage a successful event comes from the successful hosting of the African Nations Cup finals early this year in which he was again the chief executive officer of the local organising committee that saw a net profit of R3,6 million being realised.
He said they were targeting making a significant profit from the event set to run from 11 January to 1 February 2014 in three South African cities.

“Our commitment is that we deliver a tournament that Africa will be proud of, it’s also our responsibility to grow Chan into a football global event,” said Mbebe.

The Loc chief executive officer said the tournament will set a benchmark for all continental and global events that will eventually see other continents following suit.

“Chan is the first and only tournament of its nurture that is aimed at providing a platform for home based football players to showcase their skills to the world. We want it to present an attractive value and to be profitable in its own right,” he said.

Mbebe said Chan 2014 would also kick off South Africa’s celebrations of 20 years of democracy. The country  could not have played host nor participated in a tournament of this nature if it was not independent due to the sport and cultural boycott it was subjected to before independence.

Zimbabwe will be in Group B with Uganda, Burkina Faso and Morocco with Athlone Stadium in Cape Town as their base until probably the quarter-finals if Ian Gorowa manages to steer the boys that far.

Meanwhile, the South African government poured in close to R700 million towards the successful hosting of the Afcon event.
Mbebe said the South African treasury released R164 million directly to the Chan local organising committee with R120 million being channelled to the hosting cities while the committee remained with R44 million.

“Over and above the direct cash injection from the treasury, the bill obviously went up significantly because of other indirect services like security, technology among others. So I would safely say the South African government poured in between R600-700 million,” said Mbebe.
Zimbabwe is reported to be interested in bidding for the 2016 Chan.

There would be a huge need for corporate involvement in funding the biennial tournament, especially coming soon after the treasury would have parted with $40 million for the hosting of the Zone Six Under-20 Games in December next year.

Already Zifa has officially approached the Government for guarantees for the Cosafa Senior Challenge Cup.