SAFA problems at their highest

SportsBurg

@sports_burg

The quote “There’s always light at the end of the tunnel” seems a bit farfetched when it comes to South African Football Association (SAFA) and Bafana Bafana. They really cannot catch a break.

After claims that SAFA could be implicated in a match-fixing scandal, two of Bafana big sponsors Absa and Puma have announced termination of their sponsorship contracts with the national team.

Puma has decided to terminate after claims of SAFA being implicated in a match-fixing scandal in the 2010 World Cup. It is reported that SAFA bribed referees who were adjudicating Bafana’s warm-up matches.

"Puma can confirm (we) exercised the right to terminate (our) technical and licensed partnership with the South African Football Association. Following match-fixing allegations made against Safa, along with inappropriate responses from within the football organisation (including the suspension of senior officials), Puma terminated the contract with immediate effect,” quoted IOL.

This comes after Absa also announced on Tuesday that they will not be renewing their sponsorship with Bafana when it comes to an end in December 2013.

“Absa confirms (we) will conclude (our) sponsorship of the South Africa national soccer team, better known as Bafana Bafana, when the current agreement with the South African Football Association expires at the end of 2013. This follows a review of Absa’s business and brand objectives.”

With two of SAFA’s biggest sponsors pulling the plug it only remains a mystery which gear Bafana will be wearing come next year.

Experts say that SAFA can use the money obtained during the 2010 World Cup in the meantime while waiting for another sponsor to come up. 

Bale price tag a bit too much? Not really

Kgothatso Madisa

@kgmadisa

Gareth Bale. Picture: Real Madrid

Gareth Bale has finally completed his long anticipated move from Tottenham Hotspur to Spain giants Real Madrid.

Bale’s agent Jonathan Barnett says that playing for Madrid has always been his dream, he started talking about it since he was 16 years-old.

Barnett says that this particular transfer has proven to be one of the longest and probably most difficult transfers in his career as an agent because of the price tag and other factors.

There aren’t a lot of transfers that capture so much attention from football fans, only a few really manage to get everybody’s undivided interest.

Vavi to challenge suspension and pursue charges

Kgothatso Madisa

@Kgmadisa

Zwelinzima Vavi addresses the media.

Zwelinzima Vavi has every intentions of challenging the decision by Congress of SA Trade Union (Cosatu) to suspend him, reporters heard on Friday at the Parktonian Hotel in Johannesburg.

Cosatu’s Central Executive Committee suspended Vavi on Wednesday pending a hearing after he admitted to having sex with a junior worker in the Cosatu House.

Vavi said that he will be challenging the decision because he believes it was prejudice and it trampled on his rights.

“A number of affiliate leaders prejudiced themselves in that they clearly had influence by the so-called intelligence report circulated by the president.

“The decision to suspend me in order to launch an investigation is unfair and invalid and has

Vavi left out in the cold, for how long? No one knows

Kgothatso Madisa

@kgmadisa

Suspended Zwelinzima Vavi. Picture: Twitter

Cosatu’s General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has been officially placed on “special leave” pending a disciplinary hearing after admitting to having sex with a junior worker at the Cosatu House.

Vavi was suspended yesterday at a Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting which was attended by most of Cosatu’s affiliates.

Responding to a question about the meeting being null and void due to pronouncing the outcome before hand, federation’s president Sdumo Dlamini reiterated that the meeting was legal and recognised as well as the decision to suspend Vavi.

“Special CEC was convened following Cosatu’s constitution, did the matter discuss the complains of other affiliates on whether this was convened properly or not? The answer is yes and the meeting agreed that it was properly constituted”

Cosatu said that they have decided to suspend both Vavi and the staff member in question

Weekend Soccer Wrap

Kgothatso Madisa
@kgmadisa

A lot of South African soccer fans filled different stadiums and clogged up the airwaves for an extremely busy sporting weekend.

Chiefs limps over Aces
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) 2013-14 season commenced on Friday with defending champions Kaizer Chiefs taking on the newly promoted Mpumalanga Black Aces in a match of the champions.

Although Aces have just been promoted to top flight football, they surely gave Chiefs a good run for their money, allowing the champions only one early goal by Bernard Parker. 

One particular player that turned out to be problematic for Chiefs was Mabhuti Khenyeza who was fielded by the Aces despite the player being suspended for 12 months. Chiefs will be taking the matter forward.

The match ended 1 - 0 to Chiefs.


Refs arrested on their way to a match
Fans had to wait one more to catch the match between Platinum Stars and Wits University after the referees officiating the game were arrested for driving a vehicle reported as stolen.

The match which was scheduled to start at 3pm had to be postponed to 4pm and another officials had to be called in.

"The car transporting the referees to the game was reported stolen and as a result the match officials were reportedly arrested and taken to a police station in Pretoria," www.MTNFootball.com reported.

The match ended in a goalless draw.

Pirates thrash Al Ahly
After CAF denied a request by Al Ahly to postpone the match because the players were fasting since it is a month of Ramadan.

The match however went ahead and saw Pirates sail to a comfortable 3 - 0 win over the Egyptian club. Thandani Ntshumayelo, Andile Jali (penalty) and Sifiso Myeni scored comfortable goals to see their team win the first leg of the CAF Champions League first-leg.

Other games
Mamelodi Sundowns avenged their last season loss with a 3 - 1 win over Bloemfontein Celtics
SuperSport United wins 4 - 1 over Free State Stars.
Swallows 1 - 0 victory over University of Pretoria.

Benni’s retirement shock, influenced by De Sa’s treatment

Kgothatso Madisa

@kgmadisa

Benni McCarthy. Picture: The Post

Having played in the biggest teams around the world and being one of the national proficient

strikers to date, I would also feel belittled by such treatment, but we’ll get to that later.

Benni McCarthy has, after 17 years decided to finally hang his boots and call it quits saying it is now time for a new chapter.

He says that he will be looking at working with various teams to get his coaching skills. After playing soccer for so many years he says he would also like to work for a television station analysing the beautiful game.

It came as a shock to a lot of us, including his former teammate Shaun Bartlett has admitted to Goal.com that the decision was unexpected. Bartlett says that he believes that the player has been suffering a lot injuries lately and that could be one of the reasons behind his retirement.

But having watched Benni play on the soccer pitch for so long, especially in the national team (Bafana Bafana) where to this day has the most goals. I don’t buy all of this talk about age, weight and injuries forcing him to retire.

Benni McCarthy. Picture: Wikipedia

The whole of South African was ecstatic about Benni’s return to his home soil and Orlando Pirates fans were even more excited because he would be joining their team. It was clear from the onset that Pirates would be unbeaten and they were as they brought home three title (Premier Soccer League (PSL), Telkom Knockout and MTN8 in the 2011-12 season where Benni finished off with magnificent 13 goals.

Orlando Pirates coach Roger de Sa and Benni’s feud is known by many, it said to be stretching from the time De Sa was coaching Bidvest Wits in 2011.

There were a lot of speculations about Benni leaving The Bucs after De Sa was appointed head coach in 2012 because it did not seem like the two would be able to bury the hatchets and actually work together.

But against all odds the two were able to work together. But Benni did not enjoy the starting eleven for long under De Sa as the former Wits coach made sure he occupied the bench by signing the Zambian international Collins Mbesuma.

From there onwards, it was clear that the level of their feud has elevated and Benni has been watching from the sidelines quite often.

It seemed like De Sa had no idea about the world class player Benni was. It was like De Sa did not know that Benni scored 52 goals in 40 matches for Blackburn Rovers, including being the highest scorer for the team in 2006-7 season with 18 goals. Most importantly, De Sa seemed to be unaware that during his time at FC Porto, Benni won the golden boot in 2004 after scoring a hat-trick in UEFA Champions League which they won.

This is one of the solid explanations behind the reasons why the 35 year-old decided to hang his boots along with the Kickoff.com suggestion that Irvin Khoza always delays player’s contracts negotiations and Benni was not to be left hanging until the last days of his before it expires.

Next season to be one of the most interesting

Kgothatso Madisa

@kgmadisa

Roberto Mancini. Picture: Topnews.in

Although Manchester City has finished second in the Barclays Premier League subsequently making the cut to next season’s UEFA Champions League, The Blues have fired manager Roberto Mancini.

The club’s management said that Mancini failed to meet most of their set targets despite ending the 44-year silverware drought at The Citizens and had to let him go.

The news comes a few days after Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson bid farewell to the supporters after announcing his retirement come end of the season.

Ferguson will manage a football club for the last time in his career when the Red Devils faces West Bromwich Albion this weekend.

This means that the commencement of the new season will see two of Premier Leagues’ top teams start 2013-14 with new managers respectively.

Roberto Mancini. Picture: Wikipedia

Although the abovementioned is confirmed, it might not be it all as Real Madrid’s manager Jose Mourinho is on the brink of moving back to England to rejoin his former club Chelsea.

This has however been the talk of the town for a while but had not been confirmed until Real Madrid has recently approached Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) for their manager Carlo Ancelotti, which was unfortunately turned down. This is seen as a confirmation that Madrid are looking for another manager.

Here are a few pointers to take in ahead of next season:

7. Gonzalo Higuain to join Arsenal.

6. The 2013-14 season will see a Mancini-less City.

5. United will be led by David Moyes who will be leaving Everton.

4. Everton will have a new manager.

3. United will be without their favourite manager Ferguson.

2. Madrid might also be without their knight and shining armour Mourinho.

1. Chelsea is to be the greatest benefiter as Mourinho is set to return.

Bundesliga teams likely to be in UEFA finals

Kgothatso Madisa
@kgmadisa

Robert Lewandowski celebrates his goal. Picture: BVD

As we approach the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-finals, the two Spanish (La Liga) teams are trailing the two German (Bundesliga) teams, which somehow seems extraordinary.

After being embarrassed by the Germans in the first leg of the semi-finals, both FC Barcelona and Real Madrid will have to score more than 3 goals respectively to get back into the title race.

Barcelona suffered a 4 – 0 defeat under the hands of the Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich who did not want to leave any room for the Catalans to come back into the game. But as we have witnessed in the past, you cannot rule out Barcelona out of any competition until the final whistle, especially if they are playing at home.

Graced with the presence of their beloved fans at Camp Nou, Barcelona is more likely to impress and turn things around, but scoring four goals might be a bit of a challenge for them. I mean this is Bayern we are talking about.

Borussia Dortmund team jet off to Madrid. Picture: BVD

Real Madrid on the other hand are really going to have it hard, they lost 3 – 1 in the first leg and will need 3 goals tonight to proceed to the finals. It is always difficult to play against a team that is trying to prove itself to the world, that is exactly what Borussia Dortmund are doing.

They have won the Champions League once since the inception of the team and that happened about 16 years ago. Surely they want are aiming at ending their almost two decade’s drought.

But with Madrid having proven to be a stronger Spanish team, they can manage to score three goals. With Di Maria back in tonight’s squad and he will improve the sloppy midfield we witnessed in the first leg. His inclusion in the squad will see Modric remaining on the bench.

However, with that said, we are more likely to witness a Bundesliga final come May 25.

It is quite clear that the soccer played in Spain is different from that in Germany. Borussia was able to overcome Madrid because they always for goal whenever they have the ball, the same goes for Bayern. Madrid and Barcelona always seeks to complete a thousand passes before attacking and going for goal.

Chiefs really ‘reclaiming’ the PSL glory

Kgothatso Madisa
@kgmadisa

Siyabonga Nkosi. Picture: Mtnfootball.com

'Reclaiming the glory' is now a phrase that every soccer fan is familiar with, especially those who follow the Premier Soccer League (PSL) closely.

To those who do not pay much attention to what proves to be the most interesting league in Africa at the moment, 'Reclaiming the glory' is Kaizer Chiefs motto for this season as they are in a quest to win their first league title in a shocking seven seasons. It has really been dry at Naturena.

The Glamour Boys have shown significant improve this season as compared to the latter seasons, keeping in mind that they finished in the embarrassing fifth position in 2011-12.

They have been leading the 2012-13 season since the first quarter and by show of events, the Naturena boys are not intending on settling for anything less than top finish.

Bernard Parker and fans. Picture: Kaizer Chiefs

Moroka Swallows became the recent unfortunate PSL team to witness the wrath of Chiefs with a clear objective mission of lifting the trophy at the end of the season when they were thrashed 3 - 1 in a lesser famous - but a lot would agree - much more interesting Soweto Derby on Saturday evening.

Chiefs is currently leading the log with 55 points, six more than the second-placed Platinum Stars and nine more than their Soweto counterparts Orlando Pirates who still have a game in hand.

Motaung boys came from a goal behind and managed to overcome the strong Swallows in a 4-goal frenzy match that left a lot of questions hanging about the referees motives on the night.

Swallows fans and players left the Dobsonville Stadium in not the best of moods because of what they believe was bad referring from Buyile Qubula after he denied two penalty attempts by Katlego Mashego, forcing him to take a third one which keeper Itumeleng Khune stopped.

All Swallows fans should know this: Siyabonga Nomvethe ran into the penalty box on both penalty kick attempts before Mashego kicked the ball and subsequently receiving a yellow card (which should have been a red) and costing the team a goal. He is the one you should be directing all frustrations to, not the referee.

The referee let it go the first time because he believed it was a mistake from his overeagerness demeanour on the night but he felt he needed to take action when he did the same during the retake.

With that out of the way, here are a few pointers from the match:

1. Bernard Parker finally ended his goal-scoring drought and added two more to his tally subsequently steering Chiefs to their 26th league victory. Critics who claim to know more suggest that he is back into his goal scoring form because he was waiting for Chiefs to extend his contract, could this be true?

2. George Lebese deserves a mention, he played really well, probably one of the best games he has had since joining the Glamour Boys. He scored the third and final goal for the team and sealed the deal on the night, what a great comeback from his injury.

3. I expected a lot from Kingston Nkatha, he was really disappointing to watch. Lebese played his best to provide him with brilliantly executed crosses but he failed on numerous occasions to place the ball behind the keeper.

4. Siyabonga Nkosi is a very important ammunition for Chiefs, even teammate Parker said that he deserved to be the Man of the Match on the night. It is really baffling as to why he does not get a lot of game time, especially when they play against Orlando Pirates.

5. From Swallows side, besides probably being the reason why they lost, Siyabonga Nomvethe did not really help the team much, especially in the second half of the game. He should have been substituted after the 65th minute because that's when he started being really scarce.

5. Katlego Mashego also had a good game, a goal would have really been a great reward for his hard work.

6. The experienced David Mathebula was brought in late, he could have been very useful in the 70th minute when the Chiefs bunch was a bit worn off.

What does it really take to get Sascoc to intervene?

Kgothatso Madisa

@kgmadisa

Picture: Athletics South Africa

It is really sad to see Athletics South Africa (ASA) going through a similar feat it went through during Leornard Chuene’s reign in 2011. Its problems never seem to end.

As it stands, there is no boss at ASA, the federation literally runs itself. This is as a result of the ongoing infighting within the federation's management.

Six ASA board member’s including former long-distance runner Hendrick Ramaala got the federation’s president impeached just over a month ago, for alleged financial mismanagement.

The impeached ASA president James Evans then obtained a court interdict to stop his impeachment from continuing any further which has now seen six board members including Vice-president Hendrick Ramaala getting suspended.

The federation's CEO Frik Vermaak was axed late last year also for alleged mismanagement of funds and dishonesty which he believes was "a well calculated" mission by Evans who has been gunning for the top post.

Sascoc CEO Tubby Reddy and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula

What really baffles me is why South African Sports Confederation and Olympics Committee (Sascoc) waits until a situation is totally out of control before intervening?

They failed to intervene when Vermaak was being axed, they failed to intervene when Ramaala and his cronies were getting their president suspended and they failed to intervene before the court interdict.

Here is the situation at ASA at the moment, there is no CEO, the president was impeached last month and recently six board members including vice-president got suspended. Who’s left?

It really seems to be getting worse, Sascoc CEO Tubby Reddy said that Swimming South Africa (Swim SA) informed them on their returning from the 2012 London Olympics that they have lost some of their sponsors and might experience financial difficulties. What did Sascoc do? They put the issue on the side to deal with it later.

Now there are World Aquatics Championships taking place in Barcelona in July and only now they pretend to panic. There will be a lot of athletes who will not be taking part in the World Aquatic Championships because they have to pay for themselves and believe me it is one hell of an expensive trip. The only athletes that will be paid for are those in the Operation Excellence (Opex) programme.

It is really frustrating from Sascoc's side because they are the country's sport’s governing body, the Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula shouldn't have to intervene in each and every issue, especially now that he's dealing with Fifa's match fixing scandal. Some of these issues should be dealt with internally and with a lot of urgency.

They realised a long time ago that there was a power struggle in Athletics SA but they failed to make a move. The problem has elevated now to a point where there is no one left at the federation, well maybe the staff whom I hear haven’t received their pay for past several months since the body’s financial account has been frozen.

There's an old say that goes "Prevention is better than cure", let's say Sascoc comes in now for damage control and directs that all six board members get reinstated and that they should stop this thing of impeaching Evans.

What are the chances of all of them being able to work together again? How long is the federation going to be without a CEO? How are they going to ensure that everyone remains at their posts and do not try unseating anyone? There are world track and field championships coming in August, they haven’t started the selection process. It is really impossible at this stage, the worms have made their through the middle of the potato, it’s finished.

The only thing Sascoc should do in this weekend’s AGM is to get an interim board that will take the federation forward while they are still busy with internal investigations into all the allegations made.

Survival of the fittest as top teams fight for UEFA

Kgothatso Madisa

@kgmadisa

Picture: Real Madrid

This year's UEFA Champions League has been one of the most interesting ever with a lot of unexpected occurrences, from the defending champions being knocked out early to four of the most dangerous teams going through to the semi-finals.

The competition captured a lot of people’s attention in the group stages when the defending champions Chelsea were knocked out, right there and then it was open for anyone’s taking.

This is when Real Madrid made it absolutely clear that it aims to eliminate every opponent that might stand in its way of taking the title back to Madrid with them by thrashing the daring Manchester United in the last-16 round.

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo scored a much needed goal that ensured his former club was completely buried, then apologised to his United fans before later seen having a talk with his former mentor Sir Alex Ferguson, probably discussing the goal.

Picture: Real Madrid

The match that made sure the Red Devils are send into the wilderness saw Madrid progressing to the quarterfinals where they battled it out with the strong Galatasaray who were looking for their first Champions League trophy, well, their hopes were suspended for yet another season when Madrid won the two leg matches by 5 – 3 on aggregate and made it to the semi-finals with four other top rated teams.

FC Barcelona, who almost missed a semi-final opportunity after being held by the French log leader Paris Saint-Germain to two draws but got an upper hand for scoring an away goal in their first 2-all draw, also made it through in the second leg of the quarterfinals with a much needed help of Lionel Messi.

The two Bundesliga log leaders Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have also progressed to the semi-finals. Dortmund’s progression came as a surprise to a lot of people because Malaga proved to be quite a stronger opponent and a bit more title-eagered than them.

However, in their case it was always going to be Bayern and it did not matter who was the opponent, it was unfortunately Juventus who were to face the sharp double-edged sword. Bayern made sure it denies them even a single goal in the quarterfinals therefore suffering a 4 – 0 loss on aggregate.

At the moment the four teams through to the semis are Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. Considering their history, it is safe to say that title is open to anyone. It is going to be a dog-eat-dog competition from this point onwards and the fittest bunch will come on top, probably Bayern or not, who knows?