Month: April 2010

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Breaking Down in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso’s football championship was been suspended for lack of money this past Sunday, said the Burkina Faso Football Federation. “We regret to announce the cessation of the national first division championship until further notice, for lack of financial resources,” said the Burkina Faso Football Federation in a statement. The Federation said more than 400 million CFA Francs at banks, trainers, service providers and their movable and immovable property, including its headquarters built with funding from FIFA had been seized. “All our belongings were seized by a bailiff, even the chairs were taken…”, said Chairman, Zembédé Theodore Sawadogo, at a press conference this week, blaming the “financial difficulties” in its structure on the mismanagement of his predecessors.

It is story that has not registered much interest in the football watching world.  It’s a shame.  You want to open a Lionel Messi Church?  That’s all good.  I won’t forget to wear my Sunday best.  But let’s not forget the magical congregation over in Burkina Faso who also know a good goal when they see one.

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Hosting

New Book: African Soccerscapes

cover_9780896802780Released ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, my new book African Soccerscapes tells the little-known story of football in Africa. Published by Ohio University Press in North America and Hurst & Co. in Europe and Africa, the book is both a history and an examination of the connections between sport and society. Using case studies from around the continent, I show how Africans appropriated soccer from Europeans and turned it into a distinctively African activity during the twentieth century.

African players, fans, and officials challenged colonial power and expressed a commitment to racial equality and self-determination.  In postcolonial times, new nations staged matches in national stadiums as part of their independence cele­brations and joined FIFA. The Confédération Africaine de Football democratized the global game through antiapartheid sanctions and increased the number of African teams in the World Cup finals.

African Soccerscapes analyzes the causes and effects of the departure of huge numbers of African players to overseas clubs and the dominance of commercial interests in local leagues. Finally, a consideration of the growth of women’s soccer and South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup challenges the one-dimensional notion of Africa as a backward, “tribal” continent populated by victims of war, corruption, famine, and disease.

Look for stories from African Soccerscapes on this blog, as well as news and updates about book events, talks, media coverage and more.

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Hosting

Vuvuzela 1 PSL 0

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A family night out with 6,000 friends. Maritzburg United vs Amazulu: KwaZulu-Natal derby in the round of 32 of the Nedbank Cup, South Africa’s FA Cup. At kickoff, deafening kwaito music gives way to a cacophony of vuvuzelas. Not exactly kid friendly, but there it is. The relaxed mood of this Saturday night crowd, a pleasant mix of men, women and children of all backgrounds, makes up for the dreadful football on display.

The home side is slightly more enterprising in the second half, but deep into injury time the visitors’ Brad Ritson scores a counter-attack winner. Cruel. Final.

As we, the deflated masses, leave the friendly confines of Harry Gwala Stadium, I found myself wondering — again — why PSL teams played such awful soccer on a regular basis. Then I thought of the wisdom shared by Thabo Dladla, director of Izichwe Youth Football (where my daughter plays), in his column this week:

‘The idea of playing and keeping the ball longer does not exist . . . [with] less than 100 completed passes in most PSL matches’ Dladla writes, ‘I doubt if Lionel Messi would have played under most South African coaches. [In the apartheid era] football played a huge role in entertaining people. It was important to win in style. Both players and fans had a lot of fun during a game. These days one sees more creativity in the grandstands than on the field’. And as much as I viscerally detest the vuvuzela’s sonic pollution, it is the truth.

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Hosting

World Cup ticket mess

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600 FNB branches in South Africa failed soccer fans today. I waited at my branch for hours with students, cops, lecturers, government employees, farmers, housewives and South Africans from other walks of life only to be told that ‘the system was down’.  We waited with Job-like patience, hoping against hope that we could buy a ticket for a seat at stadiums built with the people’s tax money.

But it was all for naught. Precious few tickets were sold to us and a few thousand to South Africans at FNB branches nationwide. What a disgrace. Had such a mess happened in Italy there would have been riots! So it’s looking increasingly likely that the main place ordinary locals will taste the World Cup is in the Fan Parks . . . providing ‘color’ for tourists and FIFA’s global TV audience. Shame!

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Players

The Church of Leo Messi is Open!

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There is a Church of Maradona in Argentina with 120,000 members, but rumor has it that the Church of Leo Messi has opened its doors and its membership may soon reach into the millions. I’ve lost track of how many hat tricks, foot tricks, long-distance surface-to-air missiles, slaloms, chips, far-post benders, headers and assists Barcelona’s King of Football has given us. Pure joy.


There is hope that the hyper-fit, inverted pyramid, cynical and suffocating football so dominant in recent times will not completely silence the magical qualities of the beautiful game.


Yes, I have had a soft spot for Barca ever since my brother took me to see Sandro Ciotti’s Il Profeta del Gol — a film about Cruyff with jaw-dropping goals from his azulgrana days — but what Messi is giving us transcends football loyalties. Simply put, Messi is why I love football. Venite adoremus . . .

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Radio Debate: Africa’s First World Cup

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Radio France International‘s Brent Gregston invited me to discuss Africa’s First World Cup on his ‘Crossrads Debate’ program. ‘Billions of people will see the football World Cup played out in glittering new stadiums built by the rainbow nation of South Africa. But few black Africans can afford to book a seat. Will the continent’s first World Cup be a unifying force in Africa? And how much does the feel-good factor depend on the performance of South African footballers?’

Click here to listen to the program.

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Players

Why the World Champions Won’t Repeat in 2010

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The Old Lady of Italian football was humiliated 0-3 by struggling Udinese this weekend, making it 12 losses and 47 goals against in 32 serie A matches this season. After this latest embarrassment, the formerly powerful and prestigious Juventus FC apologized to millions of fans and began a ‘silenzio stampa’ (no media interviews until further notice).

Yet Marcello Lippi continues to live in an alternate universe and appears ready to go to South Africa with between half and two-thirds of the Azzurri’s starting 11 from Juve’s ranks. Tired pensioners like Cannavaro, Legrottaglie, Camoranesi and Grosso are like a concrete block around Italy’s neck. Unless Lippi has a last-minute change-of-heart, then expect the Azzurri to sink fast come June.