One of the key contests when England take on France in their opening Euro 2004 game in Lisbon on Sunday will be in midfield, where Steven Gerrard of Liverpool comes up against Patrick Vieira of Arsenal in what might be termed the Roy Keane Memorial Challenge.
Latvia arrive in Portugal as outsiders so rank you can smell them from here. If the odds against them are to be believed they are not so much minnows as krill. They should not be daunted, however. History shows that the European Championship is a tournament in which every banana skin has a chance to realise its full potential.
Enter Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, Rafael Benitez soon at Liverpool and Jacques Santini at White Hart Lane. Next season, the Premiership will boast a European Cup, Uefa Cup and, according to the bookies, the European Championship winner. And so the top managerial jobs in England go to overseas coaches.
Euro 2004’s officials will apply a new interpretation to offsides, following a directive from Fifa’s international board. The thorny issue for fans will be how referees and their assistants apply the offside law’s clause regarding whether players are in “active play”.
Prepare ye for the greatest show on Earth (until August’s Olympics, of course). If you live on the world’s most cramped continent or breathe football anywhere on the planet, the European Championship is all that matters until the final at the Stadium of Light on Sunday July 4.
In August last year Metro manager Mike Sutcliffe instructed the municipal ombudsperson to investigate some of his senior managers. His crackdown was prompted by a Mail & Guardian story about how the Metro narrowly failed to enter into a R68-million office-rental agreement with a mystery trust.
A photograph, used in the Mail & Guardian’s Greening the Future supplement last week, has caused a flurry among environmentalists. Featured on the front page because it epitomised industry taking care of the environment, it appears to have been a botanical Trojan Horse.
Tourism has long been viewed as one of the holy grails of job creation in South Africa, which is burdened by an unemployment rate of more than 30%. Certain parts of the country have become firm favourites with local and international visitors. Now the lesser-known province of Limpopo is also hoping to take its place at the table.
Parliament’s special committee considering Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana’s report on the complaint by Deputy President Jacob Zuma against National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Bulelani Ngcuka seems set for lengthy debate between the various parties represented.
The United States government on Thursday donated more than R2,5-million-worth of equipment to the South African Police Service and the Scorpions to assist them in investigating commercial crime. The equipment includes computers, software, digital cameras and projectors, cellphones and cassette recorders.