CONSTRUCTION of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Stadium has been completed on schedule, and it will tomorrow host its first British and Irish Lions match. The tourists are playing against the Southern Kings.

The R1,45bn stadium, built by a consortium led by construction group Aveng, was this month the first of the five new 2010 Soccer World Cup stadiums to be opened by football governing body Fifa.

Other new stadiums are Green Point in Cape Town, Moses Mabhida in Durban, Mbombela in Nelspruit and Peter Mokaba in Polokwane.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro stadium became a centre of controversy in July last year when Fifa and the World Cup local organising committee decided to drop it as a host of the Confederations Cup, saying it would not be ready in time for the tournament, which started yesterday.

Seen as a dress rehearsal for the World Cup, the tournament is being played in Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Pretoria and Rustenburg.

The local organising committee said last year that Nelson Mandela Bay, the municipality under which Port Elizabeth falls, was excluded from the Confederations Cup schedule after it became clear that its stadium would not be ready by the deadline of March this year.

The decision left the municipality disappointed, and it said at the time that it was “completely baffled by the decision” as it believed it would be ready in time for the tournament.

Construction of the stadium by Grinaker-LTA, a division of the Aveng group in a joint venture with Interbeton of the Netherlands, began in April 2007. Building was completed in March.

Aveng CEO Roger Jardine said the stadium was completed with an outstanding safety track record of zero serious injuries or fatalities.

“We are delighted with the progress made at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. It is an excellent example of our rigorous approach to safety in practice.

“As one of the fastest-built stadiums in the world to date, it is something that all South Africans can be spectacularly proud of.”

The 48 600-seater stadium will host several matches during the World Cup, including a third and fourth place play-off and a quarterfinal next year.

The stadium was built using 3000 tons of steel reinforcement, and covers 55 000m² of ground.