Since the world is mourning the death of the football globe legend Pele, lot of countries are prepared to rename of their stadiums after him. South African Football Association President Danny Jordaan explained why renaming a stadium in Pele’s memory would be a challenge in South Africa.
Here in SA it’s unlike most teams in the world where stadiums are owned by teams themselves like Nou Camp and Santiago Bernabeu are owned by Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively. – Jordaan explained
Furthermore he emphasis that stadium ownership is an issue in South Africa, it is something that needs to be discussed as well because other stadiums are generating income through their commercial names.
“We will have to wait and see what he [Infantino] is proposing because I mean Pele was very supportive of us as SA. What’s best, for now, is to wait for Fifa’s full proposal and then we will have to discuss it,” he said
The tricky thing in SA is that stadiums are owned by different entities, including local governments, so a lot of people need to be consulted if this is to be a reality in this country. Pele died after a very long illness, 1942-2022.
Pele’s legacy
Pele is widely considered as the greatest of all time in football. He scored 1091 goals in 1283 games for Santos in Brazil, he made his professional debut in 1956 when he was only 15 years old. Pele scored 12 goals in 12 world cup matches and won 3 world cups in his career, 1958 1962 and 1970.
