This weekend football authors Simon Kuper and David Goldblatt published the kind of book reviews that warm an author’s heart.
“Nobody understands the background to African soccer better than the Italian-American historian Peter Alegi,” writes Kuper in the Financial Times. “This World Cup is his moment. His African Soccerscapes crams daunting erudition, gleaned over many years of study of African football, into under 200 pages of history.” Click here to read Kuper’s review.
In The Observer, Goldblatt wrote: “Peter Alegi’s African Soccerscapes is simply the best available overview of the history” of the game on the continent. Click here to read Goldblatt’s review.
Given the good news, today seemed like a perfect day to go to Durban, pick up our World Cup tix and spend the afternoon playing beach football.
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Uruguayan Ultras Descend on Cape Town
Albert Lutuli is installed as Honourary President of República Oriental del Uruguay!!!
Mvumbi looks like he’s feeling La Celeste!
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Classic World Cup: France vs Senegal, 2002
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JigE4eC7XeI&w=500&h=307&rel=0
The opening match of the 2002 World Cup in May 2002 in Seoul, South Korea. Defending champions France against World Cup first timers Senegal. France had a uninspiring run to the World Cup (world champions don’t qualify). Senegal has a young team–standouts: Papa Bouba Diop, Kalilou Fadiga, El Hadji Diouf. France threatens first. David Trezeguet hits the bar. Then that goal. Watch for yourself.
* Senegal finished second and France last in their group. In the round of 16 Senegal beat Sweden 2-1, then lose 0-1 to Turkey in the quarterfinals (after extra time). Most of its players moved to the English Premier League (most notably El Hadji Diouf to Liverpool), but the team declined soon after. Oh, and France they’re in the World Cup after Thierry Henry used his hands.
These fine football folks had driven many miles from Cape provinces to get tickets for the World Cup.
They were disappointed Bafana Bafana will not be playing in Cape Town, but check out their Continental Coming Togetherness! The Bafanki Banfanki are feeling it!
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African Soccerscapes Launched in SA
What a great ride! Launched my book African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World’s Game in Joburg, Cape Town (in photo), and Durban over the past week and a half. Met so many amazing people from all walks of life and broke bread with old friends. The quality of the discussions was very high, with deep engagement on history, culture, politics and everything in between. Was extraordinarily privileged to have Sedick Isaacs of the Robben Island Makana Football Association as a guest of honor in Cape Town and the US Consul General, Jill Derderian, in attendance in Durban.
Been doing lots of press interviews, including one with the New York Times. Made TV appearances on SABC 2’s Weekend Live (thanks Lebo!) and CBC News too. Now that the blog is back up (finally!), I look forward to more thinking with my feet from African soil. Phambili!
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Coco Cola wants your World Cup
Not just the team that finally lifts the World Cup on July 11 will be winners. So will be the official sponsors. And FIFA will make sure of that. They’re banning anyone not selling “official” merchandise. One of the companies poised to make billions is soft drink manufacturer Coco Cola.
Their global ad campaign is nuts. Have a Coke and smile.
I passed by a bank in Cape Town late this morning. Folks had been lining up for their last crack at tickets since dawn. But apparently the system at this particular branch was misbehaving, and some folks, though patient, remained ticketless, and were not amused.
It’s impossible to know the scope of South Africa’s ticket distribution problems today. This was seemingly an opportunity for folks to pick up a few random tickets for the odd game here and there. The ill ticketing of this tournament has been well documented. It’s most unfortunate said disconnects in the system remain.
I don’t know why at this stage it wasn’t possible to print “x” number of tickets for “y” games in advance and just flog ’em old school style from the local football stadiums such as in Cape Town, Greenpoint, Phillipi, Athlone, et cetera.