Guest Post by Liz Timbs (@tizlimbs) “We indeed have a crisis of monumental proportions. We don’t have a crisis of talent, we have a crisis of putting everything together,” thundered South African Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula following South Africa’s 3-1 loss to Nigeria in Cape Town on Sunday, which eliminated the hosts from […]
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Fandom, Mzansi-style
Guest Post by *Liz Timbs In eMpangeni, a small city of 110,000 people in the sugar-producing area of Zululand, South Africa, my host family, the Khuzwayos, seemed typical of the local football fans I had read and heard so much about before arriving for two months of isiZulu language training. Both my “brothers,” Lindane and […]
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After the World Cup is Gone
By Sean Jacobs (@Africasacountry) Do we need a book on the 2010 World Cup already? That’s the first question I asked Peter Alegi and Chris Bolsmann, editors of the brand new volume, Africa’s World Cup (University of Michigan Press, 2013). Their quick riposte: “Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu said that ‘anyone who wasn’t thrilled by the World […]
Guest Post by *Marc Fletcher Gloomy skies and wet weather greeted the Research Forum on South African Football held at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) last month. The bleak conditions made for an intimate crowd, but the academics, journalists and sports practitioners in attendance were rewarded with three strikingly different presentations on varying aspects of […]
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Banyana Banyana Win Silver: What Next?
Boosted by a home crowd of 20,000 fans, including President Teodoro Obiang Mbasogo, Equatorial Guinea crushed South Africa 4-0 in the final of the 8th African Women’s Championship in Malabo on Sunday. Banyana Banyana — as the team is affectionately known — held out until the 43rd minute when the home team took the lead […]
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Football behind bars
I went to prison yesterday. But only for a few hours as a heavily guarded visitor at Westville Prison — Durban’s massive correctional facility bursting at the seams with 12,000 inmates, just a stone’s throw from the huge Pavilion mall. I was at the prison as part of the Izichwe Youth Football delegation attending a […]
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What’s in a shoe?
From black high-cut steel-toe boots with leather studs to light, laceless pink boots with titanium studs, the history of football shoes is a journey from pain to pleasure. Outside Europe and North America, however, millions of young players from working poor families cannot experience that special feeling of slipping on a fine pair of ‘real’ […]