Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The Chinese Stadia of Angola

This post from Pitch Invasion looks at Angola, the host of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, and how the country's economic situation relates to the development of its Chinese-funded and -built stadia.

The situation in Angola does raise interesting questions about when and how a developing country should spend money on sports. This question seems particularly acute considering the way China tends to go about building the African stadiums—by using Chinese contractors and Chinese workers. So where South Africa has tried to partially justify the massive expenditures it is making for World Cup stadiums by arguing that the money offers employment to local workers (of course, the South African worker’s strikes confirm this is not always a clean process either), Angola is just making sure the stadiums get built.

Building Stadiums: Angola, China, and the African Cup of Nations
Pitch Invasion
November 16, 2009