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World Cup 2010: The Green Point Stadium And How Apartheid Took The Footballing Soul Out Of Cape Town
City's sporting tradition tainted by legacy of division...
23-Jun-2010 4:45:00 PM
By Amar Singh in Cape Town
When England emerged from the tunnel at the Green Point stadium in Cape Town on Friday, they did so with a team made up of six white players and five black players. All deemed equally English and all equally to blame for a disappointing performance against Algeria.
By the end of the tournament the stunning new venue will have welcomed teams from nations all over the globe - from North Korea to Cameroon and from the Netherlands to Algeria.
This gleaming new stadium will also host a second round match, quarter-final and semi-final. It is a fitting venue for some of the most highly anticipated matches at the 2010 World Cup because from the 19th century up until the 1950s, when apartheid began to take hold of South Africa, the land upon which the new £415 million stadium sits was, even then, a focal point for football in the city.
Known as the Green Point common, it was the 'Hackney marshes' of Cape Town - a place where scores of amateur football matches took place on any given weekend.
In 1923 it was officially designated by the Union Government as a commonage and soon became home to several rugby, hockey and football clubs.
Racial segregation in South Africa had existed for generations and was plainly evident at this hub for football.
"They were conditioned into knowing 'their place,'" says Virgil Slade, a researcher at Cape Town's District Six museum.
"Even though apartheid was yet to be imposed by law, the black and coloured players accepted that the white clubs were more deserving of the better land.
"But this was still the home of football for Cape Town's people and was for many decades. It is the closest thing we have to the hallowed Wembley turf."
Before last Friday, the last England footballers to play at Green Point did so before a segregated crowd who watched them play an all-white team.
In the 1960's and 1970's the whites-only national football league invited a number of high profile stars including 1966 World Cup winners Geoff Hurst, Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore over to South Africa for a series of exhibition matches.
"The England stars all came over. They played at clubs such as Hartleyvale and Green Point. They saw it as the land of milk and honey and the wealthy owners of the various professional clubs were happy to pay a lot of money to fly them over here," says Peter Raath, author of Soccer Through the Years 1862-2002.
But this was long before the world had woken up to the gross injustice of apartheid and these touring players, including Kevin Keegan and George Best, received very little criticism in the media for cashing in, unlike their cricketing counterparts who were castigated for their 'rebel tours' in the 1980's.
Raath adds: "The footballers were not treated like pariahs. Nobody resented them for wanting to earn a little extra cash during the recession and there were hardly any black players in English football at the time so race was hardly an issue with English football. They were not politically-minded - they just looked at it as purely a sporting decision."
The story of how apartheid impacted on football in Cape Town is told at the 'Fields of Play' - an exhibition on show at the District Six museum.
Once home to a relatively poor, multicultural community, District Six was declared a whites-only area by the government under the Group Areas Act in 1966.
Within 16 years more than 60,000 residents of District Six had been forcibly relocated to the depressed Cape Flats townships after their homes were bulldozed and with them, their beloved community football clubs.
The museum tells their stories, and aims to preserve their memories of an area that is now just a grassy expanse of nothingness.
In the sprawling townships outside Cape Town football began to thrive, and black South Africans gathered in their thousands to watch teams that would later become known as Hellenic FC and Cape Town Spurs.
The popularity of football in the townships led to the collapse of the National Football League as sponsors switched to the teams that drew the biggest crowds.
The pattern was replicated all over South Africa leading to the white community embracing cricket and rugby - which was once played in the townships - whilst football was the sport cherished by the blacks.
But football in Cape Town dwindled as the best footballers moved north to the bigger clubs based around Johannesburg - such as the Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs.
Neal Collins, a South African-born author and journalist says: "There were prominent, heroic footballers in Cape Town under apartheid but the modern game was dominated by the big Johannesburg clubs despite the emergence of clubs like Ajax Cape Town and Santos.
"Cape Town does produce talented footballers - Benni McCarthy and Quinton Fortune both hail from the Cape - but so many are lured north in search of big clubs and big money.
"Fortune and McCarthy benefited from being picked up by European clubs at a young age otherwise they may have have never been discovered due the lack of footballing infrastructure in the south."
"I don't think football in Cape Town has really recovered from the awful taint of apartheid," he said.
"This World Cup could be just what the area needs to rejuvenate football in a city dominated by their rugby Stormers and cricket's Cobras."
Hopes were high after the stadium was inaugurated with a hotly-contested derby between Ajax and Santos.
Both teams are usually fortunate to lure an attendance of 2,000 fans for an average home Premier Soccer League match, so the fact that more than 20,000 people came to watch the match gave Cape Town a feeling that football had 'come home' to the Green Point.
The venue is yet to host the country's beloved national team Bafana Bafana, but judging by the impressive 40,000 crowd which descended on it to watch two under-20 matches featuring Ghana versus Brazil and South Africa versus Nigeria, there would not be an empty seat in the house.
Nevertheless, there remains much scepticism about whether the stadium can sustain revenue after the World Cup has gone.
It's a long time since large multicultural communities such as the people of District Six lived just a few kilometres away from Green Point - and the football-loving heartland of Cape Town remain out in the townships.
The challenge is on to ensure the stadium does not become a waste of money that serves no defining purpose.
"When you build enormous stadiums, you are shifting resources... from building schools or hospitals. These stadiums become white elephants," said the late South African poet and Robben Island prisoner Dennis Brutus.
The job of ensuring the Green Point stadium remains a sustainable venue falls to a consortium of South Africa's Sail Group and Paris-based Stade de France but their intentions will not be set out for some time.
For the football-loving people of Cape Town, of which there are many, it is hoped that the beautiful game will once again find a home at Green Point.
When England emerged from the tunnel at the Green Point stadium in Cape Town on Friday, they did so with a team made up of six white players and five black players. All deemed equally English and all equally to blame for a disappointing performance against Algeria.
By the end of the tournament the stunning new venue will have welcomed teams from nations all over the globe - from North Korea to Cameroon and from the Netherlands to Algeria.
This gleaming new stadium will also host a second round match, quarter-final and semi-final. It is a fitting venue for some of the most highly anticipated matches at the 2010 World Cup because from the 19th century up until the 1950s, when apartheid began to take hold of South Africa, the land upon which the new £415 million stadium sits was, even then, a focal point for football in the city.
Known as the Green Point common, it was the 'Hackney marshes' of Cape Town - a place where scores of amateur football matches took place on any given weekend.
In 1923 it was officially designated by the Union Government as a commonage and soon became home to several rugby, hockey and football clubs.
Hallowed turf | A 1933 map shows Green Point clubs
Racial segregation in South Africa had existed for generations and was plainly evident at this hub for football.
"They were conditioned into knowing 'their place,'" says Virgil Slade, a researcher at Cape Town's District Six museum.
"Even though apartheid was yet to be imposed by law, the black and coloured players accepted that the white clubs were more deserving of the better land.
"But this was still the home of football for Cape Town's people and was for many decades. It is the closest thing we have to the hallowed Wembley turf."
Before last Friday, the last England footballers to play at Green Point did so before a segregated crowd who watched them play an all-white team.
In the 1960's and 1970's the whites-only national football league invited a number of high profile stars including 1966 World Cup winners Geoff Hurst, Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore over to South Africa for a series of exhibition matches.
Hurst | World Cup winners toured South Africa
"The England stars all came over. They played at clubs such as Hartleyvale and Green Point. They saw it as the land of milk and honey and the wealthy owners of the various professional clubs were happy to pay a lot of money to fly them over here," says Peter Raath, author of Soccer Through the Years 1862-2002.
But this was long before the world had woken up to the gross injustice of apartheid and these touring players, including Kevin Keegan and George Best, received very little criticism in the media for cashing in, unlike their cricketing counterparts who were castigated for their 'rebel tours' in the 1980's.
Raath adds: "The footballers were not treated like pariahs. Nobody resented them for wanting to earn a little extra cash during the recession and there were hardly any black players in English football at the time so race was hardly an issue with English football. They were not politically-minded - they just looked at it as purely a sporting decision."
The story of how apartheid impacted on football in Cape Town is told at the 'Fields of Play' - an exhibition on show at the District Six museum.
Once home to a relatively poor, multicultural community, District Six was declared a whites-only area by the government under the Group Areas Act in 1966.
Within 16 years more than 60,000 residents of District Six had been forcibly relocated to the depressed Cape Flats townships after their homes were bulldozed and with them, their beloved community football clubs.
The museum tells their stories, and aims to preserve their memories of an area that is now just a grassy expanse of nothingness.
In the sprawling townships outside Cape Town football began to thrive, and black South Africans gathered in their thousands to watch teams that would later become known as Hellenic FC and Cape Town Spurs.
The popularity of football in the townships led to the collapse of the National Football League as sponsors switched to the teams that drew the biggest crowds.
The pattern was replicated all over South Africa leading to the white community embracing cricket and rugby - which was once played in the townships - whilst football was the sport cherished by the blacks.
But football in Cape Town dwindled as the best footballers moved north to the bigger clubs based around Johannesburg - such as the Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs.
Neal Collins, a South African-born author and journalist says: "There were prominent, heroic footballers in Cape Town under apartheid but the modern game was dominated by the big Johannesburg clubs despite the emergence of clubs like Ajax Cape Town and Santos.
"Cape Town does produce talented footballers - Benni McCarthy and Quinton Fortune both hail from the Cape - but so many are lured north in search of big clubs and big money.
"Fortune and McCarthy benefited from being picked up by European clubs at a young age otherwise they may have have never been discovered due the lack of footballing infrastructure in the south."
Cape hero | Quinton Fortune hails from region
"I don't think football in Cape Town has really recovered from the awful taint of apartheid," he said.
"This World Cup could be just what the area needs to rejuvenate football in a city dominated by their rugby Stormers and cricket's Cobras."
Hopes were high after the stadium was inaugurated with a hotly-contested derby between Ajax and Santos.
Both teams are usually fortunate to lure an attendance of 2,000 fans for an average home Premier Soccer League match, so the fact that more than 20,000 people came to watch the match gave Cape Town a feeling that football had 'come home' to the Green Point.
The venue is yet to host the country's beloved national team Bafana Bafana, but judging by the impressive 40,000 crowd which descended on it to watch two under-20 matches featuring Ghana versus Brazil and South Africa versus Nigeria, there would not be an empty seat in the house.
Nevertheless, there remains much scepticism about whether the stadium can sustain revenue after the World Cup has gone.
It's a long time since large multicultural communities such as the people of District Six lived just a few kilometres away from Green Point - and the football-loving heartland of Cape Town remain out in the townships.
The challenge is on to ensure the stadium does not become a waste of money that serves no defining purpose.
"When you build enormous stadiums, you are shifting resources... from building schools or hospitals. These stadiums become white elephants," said the late South African poet and Robben Island prisoner Dennis Brutus.
The job of ensuring the Green Point stadium remains a sustainable venue falls to a consortium of South Africa's Sail Group and Paris-based Stade de France but their intentions will not be set out for some time.
For the football-loving people of Cape Town, of which there are many, it is hoped that the beautiful game will once again find a home at Green Point.
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