Stadium diplomacy: China to build 60,000-seater 'gift' for Ivory Coast

The sports ministry of Cote d'Ivoire has announced that China will finance the construction of a 60,000-seat stadium in Abidjan ahead of the country's hosting of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.

Described as "a gift from China" by the Ivoirians, the stadium will take two years to complete after construction begins in January 2016.

"The Olympic stadium of Ebimpe with 60,000 seats will allow the hosting of high-level football, athletics and rugby tournaments," an Ivoirian sports ministry spokesman said.

A sports city to be built around the stadium in the suburb of Anyama is also included in the project.

The new arena will become the biggest in the West African nation that has just the 35,000 capacity Houphouet-Boigny Stadium built before independence in 1960 as the one international standard stadium.

The project is expected to further deepen relations between both countries as the Chinese continue their aggressive push to boost trade, investments and diplomatic relations in Africa.

The Asians are currently building the biggest hydro-electric project in Cote d'Ivoire as well as constructing a highway to link Abidjan and the Ghana border.

China's stadium diplomacy
Long ago, China noticed that what Africans wanted was not aid, but trade.

After a lot of thought, they decided on what has come to be known as "stadium diplomacy". It is a phenomenon which arose from their realization that tapping into Africa's most popular sports was an entry point to the continent.

And it is has been a very fruitful relationship.
China completed its first stadium construction project in Africa in 1970 with the opening of the 15,000-seater Amaan stadium in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

That modest structure marked the start of four decades of building more across Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and the South Pacific.

Today there are few countries in Africa that don’t have stadiums built by the Chinese government as gifts or with concessionary loans.

There was a noticeable acceleration in construction in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as Senegal, Mauritania, Mauritius, Kenya, Rwanda, Niger, Djibouti and the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire) all got shiny new stadiums.

But the real boom has come in the last ten years. Three recent host nations of the African Cup of Nations—Angola, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea - have had all their tournament stadiums built for the purpose by China.

All three happen to be nations with significant off-shore oil reserves ruled by autocrats and small elites structured around a ruling family.

But countries with more modest natural resources and more democratic structures of government - Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi for example - have also found room for new Chinese-built stadia within the last decade, as part of China’s much-documented program of economic expansion.

In Ghana, the Cape Coast Stadium which is an advanced stage of completion, is one such partnership mooted by the Chinese.

The facility would cost about $30 million after completion, according to Joy Sports checks.

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Story by Ghana/Joy Sports/Gary Al-Smith