First National Bank Stadium (FNB Stadium or Soccer City)

Soccer City can quite rightfully call itself the home of football in South Africa. In the mid 1980s, football officials came together to build the first international football stadium in the country and the construction was funded from the football fraternity’s coffers.

Soccer City hosted the first mass rally of Nelson Mandela after his release in 1990. Thousands of mourners lamented Chris Hani’s assassination at the stadium in 1993. It was also the venue for the 1996 CAF Africa Cup of Nations finals, with South Africa eventually triumphing.

A football-specific stadium, the FNB Stadium currently seats 78,000 people in plastic bucket seats. The stadium has the third largest capacity in Africa. Most of the largest football events in South Africa are played at the FNB.

It is also a neighbour to the home of the South African Football Association and its new headquarters, the SAFA House. The Local Organising Committee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as well as the FIFA offices, are currently being housed in SAFA House.

Soccer City will be the flagship stadium for the first FIFA World Cup in Africa. The design is unique and unusual as the outer part of the stadium is designed to resemble an African pot. About 40 percent of Joburg’s population live in Soweto, in close proximity to Soccer City. This will make the stadium a hub of activity during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

It currently seats 80,000 people, but after its planned upgrade should seat 94,700.

The stadium will hold the opening match, four more first-round matches, one second-round match one quarter-final and the final.