Without a shadow of doubt there were some people who were unimpressed when they read that the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality wanted to pay R2.5m to host the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier between Bafana Bafana and Ghana in March.

The obvious questions were probably: why don’t they rather fix the potholes, water leaks and broken street lights?

Besides the fact that those basic service delivery issues have their own budget, having a game of this magnitude is good for the city and its ambitio…