The big kick-off is nearly upon us. Just 11 months after that extraordinary Zambian triumph in Libreville, starting Saturday we have another month of football ahead as Africa’s top teams (and South Africa, there as hosts) fight it out to be Champions of Africa. We’ll be covering the tournament more intensively this time around, in […]
We’re allowed to talk about the 2010 World Cup until 2014. Later today our man, historian of African soccer, Peter Alegi, will deliver the keynote address at the 7th Sports in Africa Symposium at Ohio University. Since few of us are in Athens, don’t panic: The whole thing–including Peter’s keynote–will be webcasted live here. Here’s […]
By Peter Alegi In a few hours WikiLeaks will release thousands of secret FIFA documents detailing World Cup match fixing and widespread corruption within football’s governing body. Never before have such confidential documents been released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into FIFA’s activities on the […]
By Peter Alegi, Guest Blogger On Sunday, October 17, 2010, history was made in the Italian serie A: a match was stopped due to fans’ racist chants. It happened at the Sant’Elia stadium in Cagliari (on the island of Sardinia). Just two minutes in, referee Paolo Tagliavento had enough of the monkey chants from the […]
With less than 50 days to go before the start of the 2010 World Cup, Kenya-based journalist and author Steve Bloomfield has done a decent piece for Britian’s “The Independent” on the countdown to the tournament. My judgment is of course not clouded by him asking me for my opinion: So far, the expected boost […]
I contributed a chapter to a new book, “South Africa and the Global Game: Football, Apartheid and Beyond” edited by football historians Peter Alegi and Chris Bolsmann. (It will also come out as an issue of the academic journal, “Soccer and Society”) Here’s an excerpt from my contribution: ‘ “It Wasn’t that I did not […]
