Kaizer Chiefs fans’ celebrations have been put on hold for a week. What stands between the Glamour Boys and ending a 12-year league title drought is the small matter of three points. If Chiefs can overcome Moroka Swallows on Saturday, rivals Ajax Cape Town and Wits University will be left with only second place to fight over.
A highly emotive application by the 70 South Africans held as suspected mercenaries in Harare since March 7 was countered this week by a cold-eyed defence of the South African government. For the applicants, advocate Francois Joubert began proceedings by showing a CBS documentary on the booming oil economy of Equatorial Guinea and that small country’s parlous human rights record.
The government’s paranoid, hysterical and nit-picking response to the recent United Nations Development Programme South Africa Human Development Report 2003 has shown that it does not have a single coherent proposal on what should be done to significantly increase the country’s miserable rate of economic growth, writes Duma Gqubule.
Sudan has edged closer to a final peace deal after the government and rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army signed three protocols on Wednesday night that are crucial to ending Africa’s longest-running civil war. Over two million people have been killed and four million displaced by the war waged by the Islamic government in the north and black Christians and animists in the south.
Jose Mourinho is one cool customer, a man who does things his way. And in Wednesday night’s battle of Europe’s most-wanted young football managers he emerged the decisive winner over Didier Deschamps. If coaches were eligible for the man of the match award, it would have been his for the taking.
Until Frenchman Gérard Houllier walked through the front door of the club he had supported during his days as a student teacher, successive attempts to promote managers from within the family had gradually laid waste the legacy of Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley. The Liverpool dressing room had become a sort of pigsty.
Seven years and 242 goals after his debut, Celtic fans prepare to say farewell to Henrik Larsson, their “king of kings”. There were no dissenting voices in a sell-out crowd of 67 000 at Parkhead on Tuesday for the testimonial against Sevilla, Larsson’s final appearance in a Celtic shirt.
In certain parts of London you would be forgiven for thinking that the real cup final is happening this weekend in Cardiff. West Ham’s midfield starlet Nigel Reo-Coker contemplates the first division play-off final, promotion to the Premiership, the significance of a sudden windfall. This in itself is a bizarre twist of fate.
The last time a player with a No 7 on his back so compelled the attention during an FA Cup final, the match came to be known by his name. As a competitive spectacle Saturday’s contest between Manchester United and Millwall was not in the same universe as the Stanley Matthews final of 1953. But it was glorious to watch Cristiano Ronaldo.
Arsenal already had the most wanted manager in European football before they raised his profile even higher by going through a Premiership season undefeated, but eight years ago Arsène Wenger had to prove himself. The guiding hand behind Arsenal explains how the club manages to stay ahead of the rest.