SOUTH Africans have come out in bright colours to mark 100 days before the start of the world’s biggest soccer showcase, World Cup 2010, which will begin in June. Hundreds of people took to the streets in Johannesburg in a ceremony aimed at welcoming tourists and fans to what will be the hub of sporting action and tourism for the next few months. At least 10 million people are expected to travel to South Africa for the soccer showcase.
RUSSIAN world champion figure skaters Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin will do a virtually unchanged version of the “Aboriginal dance” that has offended Australian indigenous groups in today’s original dance section of the ice dancing competition in Vancouver.
“Good morning and thank you for joining me. Many of you in this room are my friends, many in this room know me, may have cheered for me, worked with me or supported me, now everyone of you has good reason to be critical of me. I want to say to each of you simply and directly i am deeply sorry for my selfish and irresponsible behavior I have been engaged in. People want to know how i could have been so stupid and selfish.
On the eve of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations soccer final, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) caused a stir by announcing that Togo will be banned from the next two Africa Cup of Nations and fined $50,000 because of their withdrawal from this year’s tournament held in Angola.
The controversial stab proof vests designed for tourists and going to South Africa for World Cup 2010, scheduled for June, have hit the market with one vest selling for $69,000.
A British company is marketing stab-proof vests to football fans visiting South Africa for the World Cup, a move denounced as “scare tactics” to make money off crime fears.
Past records have shown that every time Ivory Coast are in the same group as Togo at the Nations Cup, the Elephants have never gone past the group stages even in cases where they came in as pre-tournament favourites.
Even if they manage to shift the tide in their favour in Round 2, continental football heavyweights have failed to convince Africa why they are going to the World Cup with their lackluster performance in Round 1 of the African Cup of Nations.
WINDHOEK: Angola has organized something lighter but competitive for the football fans across Africa who are in that country in the interest of the African Nations Cup (AFCON).
Legendary players, Brazil’s Pele and Portugal’s Eusebio will play this Saturday in charity match to raise funds for the development of football academies in that country.
THE recent attacks on the Togolese national soccer team by rebels in the Cabinda enclave serve as an eye opener for the Federation of International Football Organisers (FIFA) and the International Olympic Commitee (IOC), the two global sporting organisations that have an elaborate history of making controversial choices of venues for the soccer World Cup and the Olympics.
