I will not hold it against you if you read this and think it is about football. But it is not. Last week the Premier Soccer League's board of governors decided to pay some of their number a once-off R70-million gratuity, with luck ending months of speculation over payments to individuals instrumental in getting football's sponsorship to top the R1-billion mark.
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has called for common sense to prevail in the quest to build a winning team for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The Brazilian named two squads for games against the United States and Canada -- but due to the Premier Soccer League schedule, the local players he selected will arrive late for training.
What South African soccer officials had naively viewed as a formality on Sunday turned into failure as Amaglug-glug went down 3-1 to Ghana's Black Meteors at the Elwak Stadium in Accra and surrendered all hope of qualifying for next year's Olympic Games in Beijing.
"Don't be alarmed," was the instant, understandable response from Bafana Bafana media officer Sifiso Cele on Friday after he announced that striking kingpin Benni McCarthy would only be joining the squad 48 hours before the game against world champions Italy in Siena on Wednesday.
By now Finance Minister Trevor Manuel must be conceding -- privately -- his allegation that Absa corruptly won the right to use its name for the premiership championship was as hasty as it was uninformed. OnTuesday, the Premier Soccer League dismissed out of hand that some of its executive committee members had received or stood to receive a 10% commission.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) has expressed disappointment with Finance Minister Trevor Manuel for involving himself in its affairs and has written to Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile, asking him to intervene, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has criticised the South African soccer authorities for not showing more concern in his quest to shape up his team for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. "We are hosting the World Cup in two-and-a-half years and people don't seem to understand the urgency in preparing the team for it," said Parreira.
Anyone with an intimate knowledge of the marauding packs of Western Province and the Sharks will know why groundsman Julian Barnard said on Friday his staff would be working all night in order to get the Newlands Stadium pitch into shape for Bafana Bafana's African Nations Cup qualifying game against Zambia.
It is 4.45pm at Meadowlands High School in Soweto. On the football field five different teams from around the area gather to prepare for their next league match. Two teams are using the partly grassed and already dusty field. On the sidelines there are about 20 players from Mighty Solutions FC.
With the stealth of a covert James Bond operation, the South African Football Association on Tuesday successfully "smuggled" Benni McCarthy into the country for his first game for Bafana Bafana in 19 months. He will play in the African Nations Cup qualifier against Zambia at Newlands Stadium on Sunday.
Privileged to the end, the grand re-entry of Benni McCarthy into the Bafana Bafana squad for Sunday's African Nations Cup qualifier against Zambia at Newlands Stadium will materialise on Wednesday -- a day after the remaining South African players are due to be ensconced in their Cape Town camp.
The 2010 Soccer World Cup is an opportunity to create a new image for Africa, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told President Thabo Mbeki on Friday. The two leaders met at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, where Mbeki hosted Merkel for talks as part of her official state visit to South Africa.
Mamelodi Sundowns player Mpho Gift Leremi, who died in a car accident on Monday night, would have been a star in 2010, the minister of sport said on Tuesday. "There is no doubt that Gift formed part of a nucleus of the Bafana Bafana plans for the 2010 Fifa World Cup establishment," Makhenkesi Stofile said in a statement.
