South Africa's priciest World Cup stadium is the flattering image that Africa's richest democracy hopes to offer the world from Friday: a striking sports ground with spectacular mountain and sea views.

The renovated 50-metre (164-foot) high, 68,000-seat Green Point stadium bursts out of Cape Town's densely populated Atlantic seaboard where it is ringed by tourist attractions, trendy restaurants, apartments and shops.

A nearby hospital rooftop was snapped up by the BBC as the setting for its World Cup studio, 1,400km (870 miles) from the tournament hub in Johannesburg.

But the controversial R4.5-billion stadium ($577 million, €483 million), described by FIFA as 2010's best pitch, has sparked criticism as a showpiece choice over cheaper but less glamorous contenders.

Tossed aside were proposals to upgrade a premier league football pitch or a successful Super 14 rugby team homeground in Newlands, which hosts a France-South Africa international the day after kick-off.

South African think-tanks have accused global football body FIFA and its chief Sepp Blatter of strong-arming the nod for Green Point.

"I really think that we're going into Green Point because Sepp Blatter says: 'I like Green Point', not because it is the best thing for South Africans," Cape Town's then-mayor Helen Zille said in 2006.

FIFA reportedly wanted a pitch between the sea and iconic Table Mountain and opposite South Africa's top tourist site, the V&A Waterfront, the Human Sciences Research Council said in a book probing 2010 legacy last year.

"FIFA strong-armed Cape Town and central government to construct a stadium for which there is no demonstrable need other than that its location shows the city to its best advantage," it said.

Green Point was announced despite a 2006 study commissioned by the city, which found it offered the fewest social and economic gains, according to a Institute of Security Studies (ISS) publication.

Under pressure to score a semi-final, cheaper upgrades were rejected for the rugby stadium in well-heeled, mostly white Newlands and the Athlone football pitch in a mixed-race suburb surrounded by low-cost housing.

The cost savings with either option would have built homes for a quarter million people or more, wrote the authors Karen Schoonbee and Stefaans Brummer.

"In the end, neither value for money nor development value triumphed," they said.

The result lies less than three kilometres from the city centre, showing off Cape Town's best assets, with a giant translucent fabric mesh bowl exterior designed to buffer strong winds and reduce noise.

Amid the controversy and ballooned costs, frustration has also arisen among Cape Town's desperate poor, and informal traders forced to leave their regular sidewalks.

Zille, now provincial premier, told journalists during the pitch's hand-over to FIFA that its location would help make the stadium viable and that attracting world events was key.

But while the city gears up into World Cup fever, questions are likely to continue about the financial viability for the stadium built over six city blocks of prime real estate.

"The location of the stadium in Cape Town is certainly one of the most striking stories of the 2010 World Cup," said the HSRC.