It is 10 years since the South Africa Football Association (Safa) first announced its intention to host the sport’s biggest showpiece, the World Cup. Today, the idea, first mooted by former Safa president Solomon ”Stix” Morewa, is less than 740 days from being realised. The Mail & Guardian tracks the history of South Africa’s biggest sporting fantasy.
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/ 8 February 2008
The Confederation of African Football and the Ghanaian local organising committee should apologise for using the old South African flag on Africa Cup of Nations posters, the Young Communist League (YCL) said on Friday. The YCL said it was ”flabbergasted” and ”despises” the posters put up in Ghana, symbolising South Africa but sporting the old flag.
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/ 7 February 2008
Hosts Ghana kick off a high-calibre Africa Cup of Nations semifinal programme when they take on Cameroon at Accra’s Ohene Djan stadium on Thursday at 5pm GMT. The Black Stars will have to make do without suspended captain John Mensah, banned for one match after being sent off in Ghana’s 2-1 quarterfinal victory over Nigeria.
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/ 5 February 2008
African soccer’s governing body has denied telling Didier Drogba and Frederic Kanoute that they had to attend last week’s African Footballer of the Year award ceremony to have a chance of winning. Côte d’Ivoire striker Drogba opted not to travel to Togo and Mali’s Kanoute, who did go, was declared the winner.
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/ 2 February 2008
Mali and Sevilla forward Frederic Kanoute was named Africa Player of 2007 on Friday, beating Chelsea clubmates Michael Essien and Didier Drogba to become the first European-born player to earn the honour. Nigeria’s Cynthia Uwak was chosen as the best women’s player ahead of South Africa’s Modise Portia.
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/ 30 January 2008
Nigeria scraped into the Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinals on goal difference after beating Benin 2-0 on Tuesday to set up an appetising clash with hosts and arch-rivals Ghana. The Super Eagles pipped Mali, thumped 3-0 by Côte d’Ivoire in the other Group B game, after both finished level on four points.
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/ 29 January 2008
A dossier on attempts to fix matches at the Africa Cup of Nations finals has been given to the Ghana police, the Confederation of African Football said on Tuesday. Benin and Namibia were approached last week to throw games at the tournament in Ghana, offered money by an unidentified man to lose group matches.
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/ 28 January 2008
The deluge of goals in the first week at the Africa Cup of Nations has been matched only by the flood of scandals and dramas off the pitch. Ahead of the decisive round of opening round games starting in Accra on Monday, Didier Drogba’s Côte d’Ivoire are the only one of the 16 teams to have secured their place in the quarterfinals.
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/ 27 January 2008
Guinea go into their must-win African Nations Cup game against Namibia on Monday rocked by star player Pascal Feindouno’s two-match ban. Namibia’s own build-up has been overshadowed to this make or break Group A match by the players’ claims they were offered 000 each to throw the game.
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/ 26 January 2008
Côte d’Ivoire became the first side to qualify for the African Nations Cup quarterfinals on Friday but fellow heavyweights Nigeria’s hopes were left hanging by a thread. The Elephants from Côte d’Ivoire brushed aside Benin 4-1, with Didier Drogba getting his first goal of this year’s tournament, to go top of Group B and assured of a place in the last eight.
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/ 25 January 2008
Guinea brought more drama to the Africa Cup of Nations on Thursday with a shock 3-2 win over Morocco while hosts Ghana struggled to beat rank outsiders Namibia 1-0. Pascal Feindouno scored twice for Guinea before being sent off for stamping on an opponent in a bad-tempered match.
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/ 18 January 2008
There has been much debate about whether the African Cup of Nations should be held at the end of the European season so that there is not a club-versus-country clash. Two football experts discuss the pros and cons. The continental showpiece kicks off in Ghana on Sunday.
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/ 11 January 2008
It is breakfast time in the slums of Jamestown, outside the Ghanaian capital, Accra. From within corrugated tin shacks and under slum tarpaulins comes the metallic clatter of early morning chores and the promise of plantains and hot milk. Defying their mothers, the local children are already on the beach playing football.
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/ 11 September 2007
In a startling admission, many of the Bafana Bafana players have confirmed they were ”in the dark” over the Confederation of African Football rules that resulted in Zambia catapulting past South Africa to become Group 11 winners after their stunning 3-1 win in an African Nations Cup qualifier in Cape Town on Sunday.
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/ 7 September 2007
German soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer visited the construction site of Cape Town’s 2010 Soccer World Cup stadium on Friday and declared himself ”very, very impressed” with preparations. ”I am very, very impressed with the construction going on in Cape Town and it’s fantastic what the people in South Africa are doing in preparing themselves for the World Cup in 2010,” he said.