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South African King Hopes for English Soccer World Cup Success
When England contests its first knock-out game at soccer’s World Cup, one man will add his name to the thousands of fans cheering them on: King Leruo Molotlegi.
The leader of the Royal Bafokeng Nation, a community of 300,000 Setswana people, has invested as much as 600 million rand ($79 million) in World Cup projects, building a high- altitude training center to attract one of the world’s most high-profile soccer teams to Phokeng, a dusty village in the heart of the platinum-mining belt in northern South Africa.
England face arch-rival and three-time World Cup winner Germany at 4 p.m. local time today.
“From a strictly business point of view, from a marketing point of view, if they went to the finals and won, that’d be good for us,” the king said in an interview, two days before England’s 1-0 victory over Slovenia, which sealed its spot in the round of 16. Failure to win would have eliminated England at the opening group stage for the first time since 1958.
The Royal Bafokeng Nation started building its fortune in the 1860s, when one of Molotlegi’s forefathers sent his men to work in South Africa’s diamond mines, the proceeds of which they used to buy their native land. Fortune had it that the world’s largest platinum seams crossed the land.
The Bafokeng have since transformed their wealth into a 30- billion-rand holding, and now own stakes in companies including Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. and Vodacom Group Ltd.
Hosting six World Cup games and the English team will help transform the Bafokeng from a small nation into a global brand, said Molotlegi.
Royal Bafokeng Stadium
The 42-year-old monarch now plans to attract other sports teams to his kingdom, which is about two hours drive west of Johannesburg.
A trained architect, the so-called kgosi helped design the 38,646-seater Royal Bafokeng Stadium, the only one of ten venues used at the tournament which is owned by a community. The benefits to the community are roads, schools, electricity and health services.
“With the media focusing on England, the word is out there,” said Molotlegi, sitting in a meeting-room kitted out with six flat-screens televisions, perched on a hill above Phokeng. “The word I’m getting from football federations, especially in Europe, is that there’s nothing like it in the world at the moment.”
Molotlegi approached the English national team and flew out the Football Association’s international committee Chairman Dave Richards to make his pitch.
Fabio Capello
It took three visits by England coach Fabio Capello to convince the Italian they could provide a suitably high-quality training pitch. The sports campus boasts eleven sports fields and a state-of-the-art gym.
“We are delighted with the facilities, they’re exceptional,” said Adrian Bevington, the Football Association’s communications director.
The king met England striker Wayne Rooney, captain Steven Gerrard and injured midfielder David Beckham, brought to South Africa to motivate the team, when the players arrived on June 3.
England struggled to a 1-1 draw at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in its opening game with the U.S., before being jeered by its own supporters after a 0-0 draw with Algeria in Cape Town six days later. Only a 1-0 victory against Slovenia guaranteed England’s place in the knock-out stages.
“What I’d like to see is England play a bit harder, I think they’ve been a bit soft,” the king said. “Arguably they’re the best team in this World Cup.”
‘Berlin Wall’
The recriminations about the two poor opening performances led former captain John Terry to suggest the team may be bored at the five-star complex they’re confined to on non-match days.
“You must ask John Terry about that,” he said. “I think there’s more than enough to do.”
If England lose their match against Germany, “we’re going to cry into our tea-cups,” said Niall Carroll, chief executive officer of Royal Bafokeng Holdings Ltd., the kingdom’s investment arm.
If England wins the World Cup, the kingdom may sell the sports campus off “brick by brick like the Berlin wall,” he said with a smile. “It’d replace our platinum revenue as our annuity income for the next 100 years.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Tariq Panja in Johannesburg at tpanja@bloomberg.net; Franz Wild in Johannesburg at fwild@bloomberg.net
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