Stade d’Angondjé, Libreville, Gabon

This is a rendering of a new 40,000 capacity stadium development in Angondjé on the outskirts of Libreville, the capital of Gabon, a stadium funded by Chinese silver to cement Sino-Gabonese relations and that – if all goes according to plan – will host the final of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. It’s known currently as Stade d’Angondjé.

Some stadium projects, such as Juventus Arena or BC Place’s openings this year, are saturated with coverage, from renderings to webcams capturing every moment of the construction process. Since April 2010, when ground was broken on the stadium development, little has emerged from Libreville even in terms of visitor snaps until quite recently.

That was cause for concern as we are supposed to see Stade d’Angondjé on a grand stage very soon: it is one of the four stadiums to be used for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, along with another Gabon construction project (Stade de Franceville, even more elusive in its development) and two in Gabon’s joint-host for the competition, Equatorial Guinea, who will use Estadio de Bata and Nuevo Estadio de Malabo. Gabon will host the final in Angondjé. Concerns have, though, been expressed about the pace of construction in Angondjé, with talk that hosting rights could move to neighboring Cameroon.

What we do know is this: the project, also known as the China-Gabon Friendship Stadium, is being funded (as the name suggests) by both Gabon’s government and by the Chinese government, the geopolitics of which are presumably rather similar to Chinese support for stadium development in Angola ahead of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, otherwise known as China’s Stadium Diplomacy in another similar Zambian development. This follows previous Chinese projects in Mali and Ghana as well, the latter of whom’s stadia built for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations suffered from numerous technical difficulties after opening.

The Chinese investment in Libreville’s stadium is expected to give China leverage as it expands its raw material production in Gabon, with concerns in Gabon about controversial Chinese involvement in a Belinga iron ore deposit project particularly prominent. China is paying for the Libreville stadium in its entirety, with the work being done by Shanghai Construction, while Gabon’s government funds much-needed infrastructure upgrades in the area around Angondjé in time for the 2012 ACN.

A recent high-profile visit by Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba accompanied by Samuel Eto’o seems to have been aimed to allay fears over slow construction expressed previously by the Confederation of African Football ahead of next year’s Africa Cup of Nations. It was all smiles, with the new stadium rising happily in the background:

It would seem, then, that all is well and the stadium will be completed on time. But there was less pictorial evidence provided of the infrastructure – hotels, roads, etc – needed elsewhere around Angondjé and Libreville for Gabon to host the tournament successfully. Indeed, Bongo even alluded to this with his comment that some parts of the project were not moving “at the desired pace.”

A betting man would think that with Chinese money and Gabon’s international reputation on the line that the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations will go ahead in Gabon, but we will keep you posted as more information filters out.

Update, 18 September 2011
Here’s a new video from the AFP with some good shots of the stadium’s construction: