World Cup Qualifying in Africa Starts with 7 Teams at ‘Home’ in Morocco During Stadium Upgrade Push 

Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe speaks during a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. (AP)
Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe speaks during a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. (AP)
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World Cup Qualifying in Africa Starts with 7 Teams at ‘Home’ in Morocco During Stadium Upgrade Push 

Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe speaks during a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. (AP)
Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe speaks during a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. (AP)

When World Cup qualifying starts in Africa on Wednesday, Morocco will be a hub of soccer action a year after the national team's historic run to becoming the continent’s first semifinalist.

Seven teams will play “home” games in Morocco over the next week, but Africa’s standout team will not be among them. Morocco’s first home game in qualifying for the 2026 tournament is in June.

Morocco has several stadiums of international standard — as befits a country preparing to co-host the 2030 World Cup — when much of the rest of Africa has none and needs a temporary home.

A strict policy by the Confederation of African Football since 2021 to drive construction and renovation of higher quality national stadiums has left 17 of 53 teams in action over the next week hosting games on neutral ground, far away from their fans at home.

It is “totally unacceptable,” CAF president Patrice Motsepe has said, that some members do not have a stadium that complies with standards to host international games for national and club teams.

So, Ethiopia opens Wednesday in the western Morocco port city of El Jadida hosting Burkina Faso about 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles) from Addis Ababa.

Niger’s team will be about 2,200 kilometers (1,360 miles) from fans back home in Niamey — where it has not played since 2021 — when facing Tanzania at the 45,000-seat Stade de Marrakech on Saturday.

Also welcoming visiting teams in the next week are Egypt, Ivory Coast, Libya, Liberia, South Africa and Tanzania for games that do not involve the host country.

The Gambia team will travel about 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) to go to Tanzania for back-to-back games, first facing Burundi then staying for its own “home” game four days later against Ivory Coast.

“We are committed to ensuring that at least one quality national stadium in every country is built, where none currently exists,” CAF said in its annual report last year, adding the goal of “ensuring that our matches and competition are safe and healthy.”

Even at one of the best new stadiums in Africa — Olembe Stadium in Yaounde, Cameroon — eight fans died in a crowd crush in January 2022 arriving for an African Cup of Nations game.

The CAF push for improved stadiums also aims to raise standards for players, with better playing and training surfaces, plus fans, sponsors and media.

Such a goal is typically achieved with state support and money in Africa where close ties often bind sports and political influence.

Motsepe, a South African mining magnate, has urged governments and heads of state to invest on visits to more than 30 of CAF's member federations.

“It is not a football problem but an infrastructure issue,” CAF said in a statement Wednesday. “That is why we need governments to partner with football to ensure that countries can play at home.”

Stadium building in Africa often means partnering with China, like the $500 million venue built in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, to host the 2015 African Games.

In Niger, a delegation from the Chinese government met soccer and government officials in April about renovating the state-owned General Seyni Kountche Stadium. Niger has since had a military coup.

In Ethiopia, building a new national stadium in a project with a Chinese state construction firm has reportedly been delayed by rising costs.

FIFA pointed to success stories with its funding programs helping member federations in Liberia and Mauritania develop their stadiums, which are modestly sized rather than a 60,000-capacity project as in other countries.

Liberia’s president is soccer great George Weah, the former AC Milan forward who won the 1995 Ballon d’Or award. Weah is contesting a runoff election this week.

The aim is for more African teams to play true home games when the nine World Cup qualifying groups resume in June. Each group winner will advance to the 2026 tournament being hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“Already, progress has been made here — a number of countries are now playing at home,” CAF said. “Admittedly, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.”



Olympics in India a ‘Dream’ Facing Many Hurdles

A laborer fixes the Olympic signage at the entrance of a venue ahead of the upcoming 141st International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Mumbai on October 11, 2023. (AFP)
A laborer fixes the Olympic signage at the entrance of a venue ahead of the upcoming 141st International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Mumbai on October 11, 2023. (AFP)
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Olympics in India a ‘Dream’ Facing Many Hurdles

A laborer fixes the Olympic signage at the entrance of a venue ahead of the upcoming 141st International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Mumbai on October 11, 2023. (AFP)
A laborer fixes the Olympic signage at the entrance of a venue ahead of the upcoming 141st International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Mumbai on October 11, 2023. (AFP)

India says it wants the 2036 Olympics in what is seen as an attempt by Narendra Modi to cement his legacy, but the country faces numerous challenges to host the biggest show on earth.

The prime minister says staging the Games in a nation where cricket is the only sport that really matters is the "dream and aspiration" of 1.4 billion people.

Experts say it is more about Modi's personal ambitions and leaving his mark on the world stage, while also sending a message about India's political and economic rise.

Modi, who is also pushing for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, will be 86 in 2036.

"Hosting the Olympics will, in a way, burnish India's credentials as a global power," said academic Ronojoy Sen, author of "Nation at Play", a history of sport in India.

"The current government wants to showcase India's rise and its place on the global high table, and hosting the Olympic Games is one way to do it."

Already the most populous nation, India is on track to become the world's third-biggest economy long before the planned Olympics.

- Olympics in 50-degree heat? -

India submitted a formal letter of intent to the International Olympic Committee in October, but has not said where it wants to hold the Games.

Local media are tipping Ahmedabad in Modi's home state of Gujarat, a semi-arid region where temperatures surge above 50 degrees Celsius (122F) in summer.

Gujarat state has already floated a company, the Gujarat Olympic Planning and Infrastructure Corporation, with a $710 million budget.

Ahmedabad has about six million people, its heart boasting a UNESCO-listed 15th-century wall which sprawls out into a rapidly growing metropolis.

The city is home to a 130,000-seater arena, the world's biggest cricket stadium, named after Modi. It staged the 2023 Cricket World Cup final.

The city is also the headquarters of the Adani Group conglomerate, headed by billionaire tycoon and Modi's close friend Gautam Adani.

Adani was the principal sponsor for the Indian team at this summer's Paris Olympics, where the country's athletes won one silver and five bronze medals.

- 'Window of opportunity' -

Despite its vast population India's record at the Olympics is poor for a country of its size, winning only 10 gold medals in its history.

Sports lawyer Nandan Kamath said hosting an Olympics was an "unprecedented window of opportunity" to strengthen Indian sport.

"I'd like to see the Olympics as a two-week-long wedding event," he said.

"A wedding is a gateway to a marriage. The work you do before the event, and all that follows, solidifies the relationship."

Outside cricket, which will be played at the Los Angeles Games in 2028, Indian strengths traditionally include hockey and wrestling.

New Delhi is reported to be pushing for the inclusion at the Olympics of Indian sports including kabaddi and kho kho -- tag team sports -- and yoga.

Retired tennis pro Manisha Malhotra, a former Olympian and now talent scout, agreed that global sporting events can boost grassroots sports but worries India might deploy a "top-down" approach.

"Big money will come in for the elite athletes, the 2036 medal hopefuls, but it will probably end at that," said Malhotra, president of the privately funded training center, the Inspire Institute of Sport.

Veteran sports journalist Sharda Ugra said India's underwhelming sports record -- apart from cricket -- was "because of its governance structure, sporting administrations and paucity of events".

"So then, is it viable for us to be building large stadiums just because we are going to be holding the Olympics?

"The answer is definitely no."

The Indian Olympic Association is split between two rival factions, with its president P.T. Usha admitting to "internal challenges" to any bid.

- 'Poor reputation' -

After Los Angeles, Brisbane will stage the 2032 Games.

The United States and Australia both have deep experience of hosting major sporting events, including previous Olympics.

India has staged World Cups for cricket and the Asian Games twice, the last time in 1982, but it has never had an event the size of an Olympics.

Many are skeptical it can successfully pull it off.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi were marked by construction delays, substandard infrastructure and accusations of corruption.

Many venues today are in a poor state.

"India will need serious repairing of its poor reputation on punctuality and cleanliness," The Indian Express daily wrote in an editorial.

"While stadium aesthetics look pretty in PowerPoint presentations and 3D printing, leaking roofs or sub-par sustainability goals in construction won't help in India making the cut."