Community Soccer Fields Spreading into Underprivileged Areas

A nonprofit group in South Africa is moving ahead with its plans to build community soccer fields in underprivileged areas. Officials say 15 "dream fields" will be completed by the World Cup.

“We are just finishing our ninth and tenth [soccer] fields at the moment. Our total invest- ments in disadvantaged communities will be about R13,5-million at the end of 2009,” Dreamfields founder and CEO John Perlman, a well-known media personality, tells Engineering News exclusively.

He adds that, this year, the organisation will be building two more fields in the Bushbuck Ridge area and will be returning to its very first field in Tshisahulu, in Venda, to turf it.

“We hope to reach the target of 15 fields before the 2010 FIFA World Cup.”

Football charity aims to build 15 ‘dream fields’ before World Cup kick-off
Engineering News
January 15, 2010

Legacy Program Gets R81m from Lottery Fund

The National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund will contribute 81 million Rand (~$9 million) to the World Cup Legacy program, which will build 27 artificial turf soccer fields throughout the country over the next three years.

2010 FIFA World Cup legacy programme gets R81m shot in arm
Engineering News
April 24, 2009

Artificial Fields to Be Built Throughout Country

27 artificial soccer fields are planned to be built throughout South Africa over the next three years as part of a donation from the National Lottery Distribution Fund.

On Monday, at the Local Organising Committee headquarters, next to the spectacular "calabash" Soccer City which is quickly nearing completion, the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund announced a donation of R81-million for the building of 27 artificial pitches.

The project will see three pitches per province and the project will be completed over the next three years.

Already nine sites have been identified for the pitches: in Gauteng, Orange Farm; Limpopo, Thohoyandou; in Mpumalanga, Siyabuswa; in North West, Moses Kotane Municipality; in Northern Cape, Upington; in the Free State, Phuthaditjaba; in the Western Cape, Grassy Park; in Eastern Cape, Cacadu; and KwaZulu-Natal, Ixopo.

Source:
Artificial pitches to be built ahead of 2010
Independent Online
April 7, 2009