FOOTBALL IS COMING HOME

Hamba Kahle Glenn Cowley

Glenn Cowley, a giant in the South African publishing industry, died after a short illness in Johannesburg. As Publisher at University of KwaZulu-Natal Press for eleven years until his retirement in 2009, Glenn developed the Press into what BooksLive called “an academic publishing powerhouse in Africa.”

Glenn’s inspiration, vision, and courage also transformed UKZN Press into arguably the leading publisher of sport history books in Africa. He was a trailblazer in recognizing how football and cricket were important topics of scholarly inquiry in their own right. Glenn also understood better than most that athletic contests have long influenced, and been influenced by, social, political, and economic factors. He passionately supported those of us who connected football and cricket with the broader quest for human rights and civil rights in South Africa. The books listed below are a testament to the ways in which Glenn helped to advance the democratization of South African history and culture:

Blacks in Whites: A Century of Cricket Struggles in KwaZulu-Natal by Ashwin Desai, Vishnu Padayachee, Krish Reddy, and Vahed, Goolam (2002)

Caught Behind: Race and Politics in Springbok Cricket by Bruce Murray and Christopher Merrett (2004)

Sport, Space and Segregation: Politics and Society in Pietermaritzburg by Christopher Merrett (2009)

Laduma! Soccer, Politics and Society in South Africa, from its Origins to 2010 by Peter Alegi (2010; first edition 2004)

Glenn’s wisdom, sense of humor, generosity, and relentless pursuit of the goodness in/of life was memorable. The photo at the top of this post was taken at my book launch at Ike’s Bookshop in Durban in May 2004, just a few days before FIFA awarded South Africa the 2010 World Cup hosting rights. Glenn is beaming next to Henry “Black Cat” Cele — the former goalkeeper who played King Shaka in the 1980s Shaka Zulu mini-series. That image captures him at his best: happily surrounded by books and people. Hamba kahle Glenn.

Click here for a tribute to Glenn by Books LIVE.

Tags Glenn Cowley, South Africa

Video

Football is Freedom

Thirty years on. No one said it better. “Football is Freedom.”

Tags Bob Marley, Jamaica

Players

Uproar over Racial Quotas in French Football

Post author By Peter Alegi
Post date May 6, 2011
4 Comments on Uproar over Racial Quotas in French Football

An investigative report by the Mediapart website revealed that numerous managers of the National Technical Directorate (DTN) and the French Football Federation (FFF) approved the “principle of discriminatory quotas” in November 2010. Their objective? To limit the number of players of West African and North African origin.

According to Mediapart, Laurent Blanc — manager of Les Bleus — would have played an active role in those discussions. It is alleged that Blanc highlighted the problem of players who spend three years in training in France and later go abroad to wear other teams’ jerseys. “Something like that cannot not create problems, it applies to the Latin Americans as well,” said Philippe Tournon, press officer of the national team.

At the heart of the problem, the report claims, is growing dissatisfaction among French managers, coaches, and administrators about players who are trained in France, develop into potential national team stars, and who then instead choose — for whatever reason — to represent another country thanks to their double citizenship. “The fact is, there is a large presence of bi-national players at the junior level,” said Fernand Duchaussoy, FFF President, “and some of them later do not want to be part of the national French team.” FIFA rules allow a player with double citizenship to play for a junior national team in one country and still go on to play for another country’s senior national team.

In response to the uproar that followed these revelations, Sports Minister Chantal Jouanno suspended FFF technical director Francois Blaquart, the author of a “quota chart” published on Thursday (May 5) by Mediapart. The explosive issue of racial quotas in French football is embedded in wider debates about immigration, race, and national identity in contemporary France. As Laurent Dubois puts it in Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France, “When a team takes to the field, the fans say, ‘They are us, and we are them.’ But sometimes that can also force a question: ‘Who are they? And who are we?'”

Tags France, race

Hosting

Eddie Lewis Passes Away

South African football mourns the death of Eddie Lewis. He died of cancer on May 2 in Johannesburg at the age of 76. The Englishman played for Manchester United, Preston North End, West Ham and Leyton Orient (1952-1963) before arriving in South Africa in 1970. Lewis coached Wits University — a white team — to a famous 3-2 victory over Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs in the 1978 Mainstay Cup final. He later coached Chiefs, Moroka Swallows, and other historically black sides.

Full story here.

Tags eddie lewis, South Africa

Video

What was the World Cup’s Legacy for South Africa?

Post author By David Patrick Lane
Post date April 23, 2011
1 Comment on What was the World Cup’s Legacy for South Africa?

Keme Nzerem of Channel 4 News in the UK returns to South Africa. It will be interesting to see how the various media address the legacy of Africa’s first World Cup in the weeks ahead.

Tags 2010 World Cup

Hosting

RIP Telkom Charity Cup

Guest blog post by Mohlomi Maubane in Soweto, South Africa

One of South Africa’s iconic tournaments, the Telkom Charity Cup, is no more. PSL chairman Irvin Khoza’s announcement this week brought down the curtain on what was arguably one of the most loved tournaments in the country.

The Charity Cup made its debut in 1986 as the Iwisa Maize Meal Spectacular. This one-day tournament quickly established itself as the domestic season opener. It featured four teams battling off in the semifinals, with the victors meeting in the final later in the day. Local football fans voted for the four teams that took part in the tournament, making the Charity Cup the most interactive professional soccer platform in South Africa. It also served to gear-up fans for the start of the new season.

And now the Charity Cup is no more, with rather puzzling reasons being given for its demise. Khoza explained that the Charity Cup was cancelled to reduce fixture congestion and player fatigue. He added that other knockout tournaments could not be cancelled as they served as qualifiers for international competitions.

Utter nonsense. First, how is canceling a one-day tournament going to reduce fixture congestion? Second, how can players’ fatigue be adversely affected by a one-day tournament at the start of the season? Third, PSL teams have long been apathetic toward African club competitions such as the Champions League and Confederation Cup. Most South African teams prefer to bypass the chance for African adventure for short-term riches at home. So it is disingenuous at best to claim that participation in continental tournaments requires burying the Charity Cup.

If the way to tell when a politician is lying is to see their lips moving, then everything said by a football administrator in South Africa should be taken with a truckload of salt. If there was a tournament worthy of being taken off the local football calendar, it is the Vodacom Challenge. This pre-season tournament features the most popular teams in the country — Orlando Pirates (owned by Khoza) and Kaizer Chiefs — playing against English Premier League opposition. Even though it also essentially entails three matches, it lasts an entire week and no other matches are played when it’s contested.

Methinks the logical reason why the Charity Cup and not the Vodacom Challenge fell to the proverbial axe is because the latter lines up the pockets of some local football heavyweights, while the former mainly benefits numerous charity organizations in the country. Talk about giving a new meaning to ‘charity begins at home’.