Africa: 2038 World Cup in... Ghana?

source: StadiumDB.com; author: michał

Africa: 2038 World Cup in... Ghana? The tournament is two decades away but Ghana already have an eye on hosting rights of their first FIFA tournament. This impressive vision of Black Star Stadium is the first symbol of what's planned.

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So far Africa hosted only one FIFA World Cup and taxpayers in South Africa are still feeling the burn after white elephant stadiums stand with limited vision of what to do now. Morocco is another African country that frequently expressed the desire to host but a third candidate has now emerged, one we didn't expect.

It's Ghana. Though it seems unbelievable, this country of 24 million people has the World Cup written into their 40-year development plan. The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) confirmed the aspiration, while also presenting its showcase element, the Black Star Stadium.

Black Star Stadium

Shaped after Ghana's national symbol the black-clad stadium would be covered with photovoltaic panels and have a sliding roof. Each of the star's arms would host facilities like a hotel, conference centre, offices, leisure and commercial facilities and a sports medicine centre.

Underground up to 4,000 parking spaces and additional open-space parking around the stadium. All this may sound very tempting and earned the idea nationwide headlines today but, quite frankly, we're not buying it at all.

First of all, the stadium vision is shockingly preliminary and flawed. Also, in its proposed size it wouldn't even meet the capacity criterion for a FIFA World Cup final venue, maybe not even for the group stage. Let alone the fact that a World Cup requires no less than 8 venues of 40,000 seats or more.

And we're talking about Ghana after all, a country notorious for extreme lack of stadium maintenance and management. Finally, the Black Star Stadium and all of the World Cup aspirations depend on Ghana carrying out the 40-year development plan well. That might prove challenging as the plan foresees the country's GDP to grow 9 times (!) by 2037. It may have been the world's fastest growing economy a few years back, but keeping that pace in the long term is very optimistic.

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