Five years after its developers announced that the construction of the Kaizer Chiefs Stadium would be complete by this year, not a brick has been laid. Construction work on the Bob van Reenen stadium precinct in Krugersdorp, earmarked by Chiefs as their home venue, was expected to begin in July 2006 and it was to be ready to use in 2008.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter believes that players guilty of deliberately dangerous tackles should be banned from football, the Times reported on Friday. Blatter made the comments in an interview before Saturday’s meeting at Gleneagles, Scotland of the International Football Board.
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/ 22 February 2008
The controversial consulting company embroiled in an alleged 2010 stadium tender irregularity in Nespruit now faces a strike by its sub-contractors. The sub-contractors working on the construction of the 2010 Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit have threatened to strike next week because they haven’t been paid R9-million due to them.
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/ 20 February 2008
The Soccer City Stadium is 50% complete and will be finished in May next year, five months ahead of the Fifa deadline, Gauteng Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation minister Barbara Creecy said on Wednesday. An independent state of readiness audit had shown that the province was ”firmly on track” to meet its commitments for the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
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/ 19 February 2008
With billions of dollars in illegal bets exchanged every year and allegations of match-fixing rife, the world’s most popular sport is waging a battle to protect its integrity. Early Warning System has the task of trying to keep Asian crime syndicates and other gambling mafias around the world from fixing matches.
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/ 18 February 2008
The Fifa local organising committee (LOC) on Monday rubbished claims of divisions within the local 2010 organising body on Monday. LOC chairperson Irvin Khoza said the focus should be on the 2010 project and not his relationship with committee CEO Danny Jordaan.
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/ 18 February 2008
South America and Africa have no chance of hosting the 2018 Soccer World Cup. ”Of all five continents available to present, South America and Africa will not be allowed to,” Fifa president Sepp Blatter said on Sunday. ”If we hadn’t taken the decision to have a rotation policy in the first place, Africa would never had had the chance to host the World Cup, neither would South America.”
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/ 17 February 2008
Infighting and mistrust are tearing the 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC) apart, a media report said on Sunday. Key players in the LOC — tasked with organising Africa’s first Fifa Soccer World Cup — were barely talking to each other, while chief executive Danny Jordaan has been labelled a ”control freak”.
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/ 15 February 2008
Bafana Bafana might have failed to make it past the first round of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament in Ghana, but Enock Molefe, the assistant referee in the Afcon final between Egypt and Cameroon last Sunday, flew the South African flag high with his unimpeachable calls to the very last minute of the match.
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/ 15 February 2008
Another week, another chance to gauge how our fine governing bodies are combating racism, with everyone’s favourite test case still England’s 2004 friendly against Spain in Madrid. Yet what’s often overlooked is that it was world soccer governing body Fifa that imposed the paltry £44 750 fine on the Spanish FA for the racist chanting.
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/ 15 February 2008
Fifa president Sepp Blatter has opposed plans by the Premier League to play matches abroad and warned that the proposal could harm England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup. ”This is abuse. The rich Premier League is trying to get richer and wants to expand the importance of that league,” Blatter told the BBC.
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/ 9 February 2008
Support within English football for controversial plans to take Premier League matches around the world appeared to be growing on Friday as influential figures including Arsene Wenger and Roy Keane voiced their backing. But the prospect of opposition from Fifa also loomed large after the world governing body said it would examine the proposals.
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/ 8 February 2008
Mark Gleeson is a living legend of African football — and probably the only man at the Africa Cup of Nations who has been photographed naked for the Serbian edition of Playboy. It was not full frontal, which is just as well as he’s taller than Peter Crouch.
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/ 30 January 2008
South Africans can save electricity by going to sleep earlier and boiling less water, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica on Wednesday told a special sitting of Parliament to discuss the power crisis. Nationwide power cuts began again at 3pm on Wednesday, said electricity provider Eskom.
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/ 30 January 2008
Frequent power failures in South Africa won’t affect the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the man who is expected to be the country’s next president said on Tuesday. African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma met Fifa president Sepp Blatter after attending the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.
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/ 22 January 2008
South Africa’s neighbours are feeling the pinch of Eskom’s problems as they are plunged into darkness and face power failures of their own. Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe have all reported power failures and their governments have had to move quickly to clarify the reliability of future power supplies.
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/ 20 January 2008
Downtown Accra is decorated with ”Go Ghana” banners as this lively city of nearly three million people prepares for the start of the continent’s most storied soccer tournament. A million visitors are expected in the West African state for the Africa Cup of Nations, which begins on Sunday with a sold-out opener between the host nation and Guinea.
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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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/ 15 January 2008
Embattled cricket umpire Steve Bucknor expressed disappointment on Monday in being sent home from the Test series between India and Australia. Bucknor said he was ”disappointed that I am not continuing the tour between Australia and India, in Australia. But I respect the International Cricket Council’s authority in the matter.”
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/ 11 January 2008
South Africa midfielder Steven Pienaar stormed out of a press conference on Thursday after refusing to answer questions about his late arrival at a 2008 Africa Cup of Nations camp. ”I’m going,” shouted the Everton star after his attempt to set the agenda was rejected by journalists in Durban, where Bafana Bafana are training.
The belated, but soothing pronouncement from Bafana Bafana administrative manager Sipho Nkumane on Tuesday night that ”all the players are now in camp” must have sounded like music to the ears of coach Carlos Alberto Parreira. The last three players to arrive were Everton midfielder Steven Pienaar, Maccabi Haifa fullback Tsepo Masilela and Bloemfontein Celtic’s Tumelo Nhlapo.
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/ 30 December 2007
Phil O’Donnell, captain of Scottish Premier League club Motherwell, died on Saturday after collapsing during a match. The 35-year-old midfielder fell to the ground at Fir Park just as he was about to be substituted against Dundee United. The player was carried from the field on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
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/ 23 December 2007
The new chairperson of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, Khanyisiwe Mkhonza, paid tribute to the outgoing board in a statement to the media on Sunday. Mkhonza, who is the current chairperson of the public broadcasting services board sub-committee, also acknowledged challenges facing the new board.
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/ 21 December 2007
Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile spoke to Lucky Sindane about the new Sports Amendment Act, which allows government to intervene in all sporting matters. He said that once the playing grounds have been levelled, our children will start from the same starter blocks with an equal preparation and opportunity to win.
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/ 18 December 2007
Witwatersrand University has recently been accredited as a Fifa Centre of Medical Excellence to cater for soccer players in need of medical care, the university said on Tuesday. The Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at the university would ensure that players received expert medical care and advice.
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/ 18 December 2007
Brazil and AC Milan’s Kaka has simply been the outstanding footballer of 2007 and proved that claim by winning the Fifa player of the year award on Monday to add to his European Footballer of the Year honour. The 25-year-old Kaka starred in AC Milan’s run to the European Champions League title, then the European Super Cup and the recent Club World Cup.
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/ 4 December 2007
The City of Tshwane will be ready to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup spectacle, mayor Gwen Ramakgopa said on Tuesday. ”We are confident that we are on track,” she said. She was addressing journalists at a press-club briefing in Pretoria about the city’s readiness to host the event.
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/ 30 November 2007
This weekend’s Nedbank Golf Challenge has already made the headlines, but it is likely to be remembered mostly for the late withdrawals by big-name stars. First it was world number three and two-time defending champion Jim Furyk withdrawing on ”doctor’s” orders. Then reluctant genius Sergio Garcia said he needed to rest for three months.
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/ 28 November 2007
A makeshift Bafana Bafana side put five goals past a hapless Lesotho in a one-sided training match at the Germiston Stadium on Tuesday evening. Ajax Cape Town striker Thembinkosi Fanteni led the way with a brace, while Orlando Pirates’ Lebohang Mokoena, Santos’ Thando Mngomeni and SuperSport United’s Katlego Mphela netted a goal each.
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/ 27 November 2007
A stadium collapse that killed seven people highlighted the crumbling state of Brazil’s soccer arenas less than a month after the country was chosen to host the 2014 World Cup, architects said on Monday. The victims fell 15m through a 3m wide hole that opened in the concrete stands of the Fonte Nova stadium in Salvador.
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/ 25 November 2007
Despite qualifying automatically as hosts of the 2010 World Cup, South Africa got some of the toughest opposition possible as preparation in the 2010 World Cup draw on Sunday. The draw, broadcast live to 170 territories, took place at the Durban International Convention Centre.
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/ 25 November 2007
Soccer administration in Africa is plagued by too much political interference, with sports ministers often attempting to control national teams, said Fifa president Sepp Blatter in Durban on Sunday. However, he praised the backing that the South African local organising committee has received from the government.