Nigeria’s sports minister, Ibrahim Bio, and Super Eagles coach, Lars Lagerback, will later today meet with representatives of football’s world body, FIFA, in an attempt to dump the Ballito Hampshire Hotel contracted to serve as the national team’s base camp during the upcoming World Cup in South Africa.
Bio led a Nigerian delegation that included officials of both the National Sports Commission (NSC) and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to Durban, in South Africa, on Wednesday in the aftermath of a media storm over the suitability of the hotel. Officials of the KwaZulu-Natal Province, hosts of the team, along with some FIFA officials, were also on the facility tour.
South African news web site, Independentonline.com, disclosed that Bio, during a tour of the hotel, expressed, amongst other things, concern about security and the facility’s proximity to the highway.
“I am concerned about the noise. I am very unsure of the security of this place. It’s important that our boys are secure,” said Bio, who also led the delegation on Wednesday to the Zimbali Lodge, a five-star facility, which the report claimed was now the preferred choice.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) also reported the visit of the delegation to both hotels but disclosed that a final choice won’t be known until after Bio’s visit to FIFA’s accommodation and logistics arm, Match, later today.
The South African site however reports that FIFA, last week, stated that no base camp hotel changes would be possible. The report further stated that FIFA had not received any official statement from the NFF; but the chairman of the World Cup’s Local Organising Committee, Danny Jordaan, told NAN last week in Kimberley that Nigeria was free to change its base if they were not satisfied with the Ballito Hampshire Hotel, adding that FIFA had 46 base camps from which Nigeria could choose from.
NFF’s choice
An official from Match’s accommodation office, Sheena Mistri, however disclosed to the South African site that a Nigerian delegation had visited the province in December and were shown all the available Match-approved hotels.
But the Nigerian delegation, made up of erstwhile Super Eagles handler Shaibu Amodu and board members of the NFF eventually settled for the Ballito Hampshire hotel which was originally not a Fifa approved hotel.
“The NFF was insistent this was the property they wanted. They requested us to approve the hotel for their team accommodation,” said Mistri.
An official of the government of the KwaZulu-Natal Province was quoted in the Independentonline.com as saying that their “mandate was to satisfy the coach (Amodu), which we did. But since December Nigeria have changed their coach.”
However, Lagerback, who’s on the Nigerian delegation, refused to give his opinion on the hotels stating that it was “now a political decision.”
Exotic Englishmen
How Amodu and the NFF came about their decision to pick the Ballito Hampshire Hotel will probably remain unknown for the time being but it’s possible they took economic factors into consideration before reaching their unpopular decision as a night at the three-star hotel situated within a business park would have cost the NFF a miserly £66 per room.
Nigeria isn’t alone, that is as far as bargain deals are concerned, as Group B rivals Argentina, are not far behind in that regard as their facility comes at a bargain £69 a night. Only difference is their base, the High Performance Sports Centre in Pretoria, is a four-star facility.
Greece, who are also in Group B, are putting their football pride before their crippling national debt by staying at the four-star £250-a-night Beverley Hills Hotel, also in the KwaZulu-Natal Province, while the South Koreans, the last team in Group B will be putting up at a hotel that costs £109-a-night.
Didier Drogba and his Cote d’Ivoire team mates will be staying at the four-star Riverside Hotel in Gauteng where a room costs just £119 while Ghana’s accommodation at the Roode Vallei Country Lodge, also in Gauteng, costs £160-a-night. The Algerians will be based at the four-star Mondazur Resort which is situated about a 100 miles south of Durban and which costs £118-a-night.
But that is small fries when compared to what the Cameroonians have put in place for the World Cup.
According to a report on the News of the World, the Indomitable Lions will be paying as much as £395-a-night to stay at the five-star Oyster Box Hotel in Umhlanga which is one of the top hotels in South Africa.
Hosts of the last World Cup Germany will be staying at the five-star Velmore Hotel in Centurion, where a top suite costs £880 but the team that has splashed out the most cash is the English national team who will be bunking up in luxury for an estimated £1,000-a-night at their five-star Royal Marang base described by the team’s coach Fabio Capello as “fantastic”.