After a long and arduous day of negotiations, the SA Rugby Football Union and the SA Rugby Players’ Association have finally reached a settlement. Leon Levy, from the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, said on Thursday evening that the agreement would be put to the players on Monday.
Thierry Henry and Robert Pires have pledged their futures to Arsenal despite the almost certain sale of their French international teammate Patrick Vieira to Real Madrid. Vieira has told colleagues at Highbury that he will be leaving for the Bernabeu soon, but Henry and Pires have no intention of seeking a move in his wake.
When unbeaten Premiership champions Arsenal kick off the season with the Community Shield showdown against FA Cup holders Manchester United, you won’t be seeing the two best clubs in the land. You’ll have to wait a week to see that, when Sir Alex Ferguson’s United go to Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge.
With only one week to go before the ”greatest sports show on Earth” gets under way in Athens, the South African team looks in good shape. A medals haul higher than the current record of five looks on the cards, even though the president of the National Olympic Committee of South Africa remains non-committal about the team’s chances.
For the anxious-looking women taking a cigarette break this week on the corner of 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue, there was only one topic of conversation. Unlike former terror threats, the warnings from the United States Department of Homeland Security last Sunday were remarkably specific and the Citigroup building we were in front of was one of five potential targets named in the financial sector.
Zulu Royals, relegated from the Premier Soccer League last season, are again trying to get back into the top flight via the courts rather than the football field. This time they are trying to prove that Dikulu Bageta, a Congolese defender who played for Ajax Cape Town last season, was improperly registered by the league.
When Nick Barmby signed for his home-town team last month, the player Pele predicted would be a world star when he was just 21. But at just 30 years old and with 23 international caps, it may just seem a little early for the player, who was Leeds’s last cash signing in 2002, to be playing first-division football.
Cape Town municipal workers were on Friday morning mopping up after heavy rains caused flooding across the city. Thursday’s rains, which came amid a dry spell and water restrictions for the city, saw certain roads become virtually impassable.
John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president, published a list of about 200 entrepreneurs supporting his run for the White House, in an effort to reassure voters of his moderate credentials. The list, not unexpectedly, included endorsements from players in the entertainment and fashion industries. Among the signatories were Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein and designer Donna Karan.
Though no longer in office, former housing minister Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele used public funds to fight her appeal court battle. Her case, decided by the Supreme Court of Appeals this week, was fought by the state attorneys’ office and may have cost R500 000, legal experts say.