The Soweto Gospel Choir is among many of the leading South African acts sidelined by foreign artists for the World Cup.
This year’s Soccer World Cup in South Africa will be kicked off by R&B singer Alicia Keys and the pop band Black Eyed Peas. Other artists performing at the opening ceremony include John Legend, Angelique Kidjo, Shakira and Juanes. The concert will take place on June 10 in the newly remodeled Orlando Stadium with more than 30,000 people expected to pack in to the arena.
The FIFA World Cup is one of the most watched sporting events with the 2006 World Cup boasting of a worldwide cumulative TV audience of 26.29 billion. The organisers believe it will be “the greatest entertainment event to date in Africa” and with such a talented lot of performers it is hard to believe otherwise.
FIFA secretary general, Jerome Valcke said, “We are thrilled to have a concert of such magnitude and performing talent raise the curtain on the first FIFA World Cup in Africa.”
South African artists however are not happy about being sidelined by foreign acts. Traditionally the inaugral ceremony of the World Cup has been used by the host nation to showcase local talent. The 1998 World Cup in France local singer Axelle Red sang alongside Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour and the stars at the 2006 World Cup in Germany were tenor Herbert Grönemeyer and drummers from Upper Bavaria.
This year however, only three South African acts– progressive rock band BLK JKS, the Parlotones and singer-songwriter Vusi Mahlasela – have been lined up for the show at Soccer City, Soweto, on the eve of the opening match between the hosts and Mexico. Africa will be represented by acts from Mali and Benin, even though their countries have not qualified for the tournament.
Many local artists feel that the lack of local performers makes a mockery of the South African World Cup and are suggesting that the radio stations in South Africa only play African music for the duration of the tournament so the tourists might at least get to hear them on radio.
Actor Mabutho “Kid” Sithole, a spokesman for the Creative Workers’ Union said, “The culture and sports boycotts played a major role in the fight against apartheid. Inside the country, our artists gave us the strength to fight on. We had a chance to celebrate their historic role, but they are being treated with contempt.”
The South African department of arts and culture said it “supports the outcry from artists about the dearth of South African artists at the 10 June concert”, adding that the line-up was “not fair”.
Ever since we lost to Inter, talks about a summer clear-out at Chelsea have failed to die-out. Joe Cole still hasn’t signed a new contract and it very seems likely that we will lose him to (brace yourselves) Manchester United. Joey Cole was good in our game against Aston Villa and I find it very strange that Chelsea aren’t trying harder to keep him. I mean, you’d have to be blind twice over to not see how gifted a player he is!
Another player who could be gone this summer is Deco. The Portuguese play-maker has already made known his desire to move to Brazil and will most likely end up at Fluninese, leaving Chelsea with a much reduced wage-bill. John Obi-Mikel and Kalou are the other two first-teamers who might be considered surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge.
If you are rolling you eyes and wondering why Chelsea are selling 4-first teamers when our bench already looks ill-equipped to cope with the inevitable injury problems during the season. Fear not my fellow Chelsea supporter, Carlo’s got a plan!
It is rumored that Carlo Ancelotti’s got his eye on an Everton duo. David Moyes,thee be warned! What Carlo wants, Carlo gets and he wants the South African play-maker, hairstyle extraordinaire, Steven Pienaar. Tottenham are also interested in Steven Pienaar who is valued at around £13 million and is said to be looking for options ahead of the World Cup. Since he has already been bitten by the Champions League bug whilst at Ajax, I am guessing he would want to move to a club that can assure him Champions League football (sorry Tottenham!).
The other player that Ancelotti has his eye on is the extremely talented Jack Rodwell and whom I would love to see at Chelsea and not just because he is a wonderful footballer but also because Sir Alex also wants the Under 21 England International and feels that he will be a perfect replacement for Rio Ferdinand. If Carlo Ancelotti does lure Rodwell to Chelsea, it’ll mean that the impossible has been accomplished… Sir Alex has been denied something! The referees won’t do it so I guess we’ll have to!
The two are valued together at around £32m. Roman being a wonderful owner is happy to invest in the club but would want to see a much sleeker wage bill. He has decided to play it safe and not go completely overboard in funding Chelsea’s transfer budget. The recession affects billionaires too! This explains why we might see some first team players leaving the club come summer. However, I do wish that we can keep Joe Cole and hope we can find buyers for Hilario!
The debt-ridden football club Portsmouth has been given special permission by the Premier League to sell players outside of the traditional transfer windows in an effort to help ease their current financial crisis. Portsmouth who lost 5-0 to Chelsea last night and have already had 9 points deducted as a penalty for going in to administration, will most certainly be relegated to the Championship.
Portsmouth became the first club in the top flight to go into administration with debts of approximately £60 million, and have already laid-off 85 staffers to cut their costs.
So, it came as a much needed respite when the Premier League re-considered its initial verdict and on Wednesday issued a statement giving permission to the crisis club to sell its players outside of the transfer windows. Pompey, however, do need to fulfill certain conditions before the sales can go through:
1. Players may be sold to other Premier League Clubs but may not play first team football for the new club before the end of the season.
2. Players may be sold to a Football League or foreign club, subject to Fifa’s approval.
3. Portsmouth FC may enter into an agreement with another Premier League, Football League or foreign club that a player will be transferred to that other club in the summer.
Following the news, the club administrator Andrew Andronikou was quick to point out that he wants the club to start the next season with an entirely new squad. He also revealed that 10- first team players were up for sale and that many others would leave the club when their contracts end. The club hopes to raise £30m and also to reduce their massive wage bill. The south coast club then plans to bring in players on free transfers in the summer. He told Soccernet:
“The major assets of this football club are the supporters who pay to watch their team, and then come the players. My job is to maximise both…
First of all, I must reassure the supporters that we will start next season with a completely new team, one that we believe will be able to compete, but most importantly we will have secured the future of the club for next season and the season after that, at least.
We have gotto be clever in the way we maximise the value of the club’s greatest asset: the players themselves. We need to sell between eight and ten of our first-team squad. We currently have a first team squad of 28, we have 40 players at this club.
We will have as many again who will be coming to the end of their contract, and we will be letting them go. The reason is that the game as a whole will be shedding hundreds if not thousands of players this summer, and we can pick up some top talent on free transfers.”
This decision by the English Premier League in Portsmouth’s favour has lifted the spirits of the board and the fans. Many Pompey fans are now confident that their club will survive this crisis, and could be heard singing “Avram Grant’s Blue and White Army” and “We are going to Wembley” during their 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Chelsea.
Portsmouth could still finish this season on a high, despite the almost certain relegation. They are still in the running for the FA Cup and have a Semi Final against Tottenham to look forward to,with a chance of a place in the Final against either Chelsea or Aston Villa, who face each other on April 10 in the other Semi Final.
Lionel Messi scored his second hatrick in a row in Barcelona’s 4-2 win over Zaragoza on Sunday. The little Argentine’s sensational form has drawn comparisons to the world’s greatest player with many arguing that he in fact is the greatest player to ever play the beautiful game. So it isn’t very surprising that he has replaced David Beckham to become the best-paid footballer in the world according, to France Football magazine’s annual “rich list“. The Argentina forward is said to have made £29.6m (sum of salaries, bonuses and sponsorships) last year making him the 4th highest paid athlete in the world, behind Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and LeBron James.
Messi , who helped Barcelona win the treble last season was paid a £3.6 million bonus which is what helped him de-throne David Beckham who has held the top spot on the rich list for the last 2 years. The falling value of the dollar is another factor working in favour of the magnificent Messi.
David Beckham came in at number 2 with an annual income £27.3 million followed closely by Messi’s predecessor as the World Player of the Year, Cristiano Ronaldo raking in £27 million.
France’s Football Magazine’s Rich List
1.Lionel Messi (Barcelona) £29.6m
2. David Beckham (LA Galaxy/Milan) £27.3m
3. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) £27m
4. Kaka (Real Madrid) £16.9m
5. Thierry Henry (Barcelona) £16.1m
6. Ronaldinho (AC Milan) £15.5m
7. Carlos Tevez (Manchester City) £13.8m
8. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona) £13m
9. Frank Lampard (Chelsea) £12.8m
10. Samuel Eto’o (Inter Milan) £12.4m
It is interesting to note that only two of the players in the top-ten highest paid footballers, Frank Lampard of Chelsea and Carlos Tevez of Manchester City ply their trade in the English Premier League. This strange statistic probably because of the big earners wanting to escape the large hike in taxes for high income earners in the UK.
It is also interesting to see, that although the reported incomes are very high, they are not even close to the kind of money that is made by boxers or Formula 1 racers. Of course, the difference in the salaries could be justified by pointing out that footballer don’t literally put their life at risk like racers or boxers do. Footballers incomes have increased many fold in the last few years but it is very surprising indeed to not that they are still very far-off from the incomes earned in American sports by NFL, NBA or MLB sportsman.
Chelsea’s season started off with a roar under Carlo Ancelotti but now it seems likely to end in a whimper. I have been trying to make sense of why bad things happen to good clubs ( mood music would be good here) and here is what I think are some of the reasons (excuses as some cynics might point out) why we’ve lost our form in the last few weeks:
1. Champions League
Let me be the first one to confirm to everyone out there that YES, we were rubbish on the night. Now, having said that I do however feel that we have been getting a very raw deal from referees in the Champions League. Last year against Barca was truly horrible and its probably because of that terrible display of referreeing that this year’s ‘pretty bad’ referreing is not being paid much attention. We had at least one if not two sure shot penalty claims in the second leg at home. The Inter defenders were groping our players to the extent of the whole thing being nauseating and very disturbing! Even if we don’t consider these penalties which we should have got in the second leg, I cant help but think about that foul on Florent Malouda in the box in the first leg, which once again was a sure-shot penalty. Had that penalty been given, it would have completely changed the tie.
2.Jose Mourinho
What can I say? He is the Special One and his tactics were spot on. He knew exactly how to wind Drogba up, how to stop Chelsea playing and how to utilise his most potent weapons in the magnificent Wesley Sneijder and the incredible Samuel Eto’o. He knew exactly how to play us and play us he did. Mourinho is a great tactician and that is the reason every single club with dreams of conquering the world and money to spend, want him. I was never one of those who agreed with Roman’s decision to sack Mourinho but then I guess Roman had his reasons or may be just his ego (which I am guessing is hurting reaaal bad right now).
3.Carlo Ancelotti
The past few weeks, ever since the Champions League exit, more and more of us are singing woeful laments about losing the Special One to Inter. Now I have nothing against singing (except I prefer hitting the happier notes), but lets not forget that Carlo Ancelotti is a great manager with 2 Champions League trophies to his name. He has a lot of experience handling big name players and managed to get more out of Kaka than Real Madrid are managing to now and more importantly he got more out of Andriy Shevchenko than Mourinho ever could. His only fault this season to me seems to be his rather conservative use of our younger players, may be thats an after effect of having come from the slightly more laid-back Serie A. Hopefully, he has learnt albeit the hard way that ours is in fact an ageing squad! I feel its too early to count him out and that he will get it right at Chelsea, he just needs time.
4. Injuries
We are not a very ‘lucky’ team, are we? We don’t get decisions our way and well, we get the worst injuries at the worst time. Michael Essien is probably my favourite mid-fielder and his absense has had a huge impact on us. Ashley Cole’s injury was a major blow too, especially seeing the form he was in! Add to that Petr Cech (who actually is our only goal-keeper) and then our substitute goalkeeper Hilario (which probably worked to our advantage!). And now when its crucial for us to win all our matches, Ivanovic who’s been probably Chelsea’s best player this season is injured. I know other teams have had their share of injury problems with United playing with an entirely make-shift defense at the start of the season and Arsenal were without RVP and Cesc and so we shouldn’t really use our injury problems as an excuse but all I am saying is it affected us and probably we should have coped better with it but we didn’t.
5. John Terry’s Off-field Scandal
As much as I’d like to believe that revelations about JT’s personal life have nothing to do with our football. It seems they do. Basically because JT and the rest of the team are human and negative news as much as they try and not let it affect them, affects them all the same. Remember the Manchester City game? I mean I don’t think even Manchester City thought that such a result was possible but with the whole Wayne Bridge ‘will-he-wont-he-shake-hands’ nonsense reaching fever-pitch on the day wound Manchester City up so much that it cost us 3 (precious) points.
Those were the gory details of our fall from top of the table, but the good news is, it is not over yet. We have a game in hand against Portsmouth tonight which helps us make up a bit of ground. Our destiny is in our hands and our plan really can’t get simpler… win all the remaining games. Ktbffh.
Budget airline Kulula had felt FIFA’s wrath when the world football authority blocked their ad in which it said that it was the ‘Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What’. FIFA felt that the advertisement which was framed by soccer balls, soccer players, vuvuzelas, and was in the green and blue Kulula colour had pushed the limits of their copyright on the combined use of these symbols too far. The airline felt that FIFA’s reaction had been a “bit over the top” and that it was extreme to claim association with the representation of everything that relates to the World Cup including the South African flag and Vuvuzelas.
The airline had vowed then that there would definitely be another ad and they stuck to their word. Only this time they are wittier! In yesterday’s Sunday Times, Kulula seemed to mock FIFA’s approach to marketing which associates any company to the World Cup by publishing a full page ad which refers to 2010 as ‘Not next year, not last year, but somewhere in between’.
Since FIFA has a problem with the South African flag being used, this ad on its borders has two hanging pieces of cloth labelled, “Colourful beach towel? Flag?”
Knowing about the world football authority’s feelings towards the use of Vuvuzela’s in advertisements, the ad is illustrated by golf tees which look a lot like a certain plastic trumpet but to reassure FIFA is labelled, “Definitely definitely a golf tee’.
Continuing in the same spirit of not annoying FIFA, the ad is quick to point out, “No, they’re running shoes” next to a pair of what appear to be football boots without studs, towards the bottom of the ad.
In the middle of the page is an imposing structure that, at first glance, looks like a football stadium. Kulula had been told that they cannot use the Cape Town Stadium in their ads. So not wanting to offend the mighty FIFA they assure you that the structure is, in fact, ‘Storms River suspension bridge’.
FIFA who are notorious for their lack of a sense of humour are sure to react but it certainly looks like they have met their match!
In one of the most unpredictable seasons in the Premier League, the one thing that is predictable is that Portsmouth most certainly will be relegated. With the Premier League imposing a 9-point deduction on the debt-ridden club for entering administration, the club has only 10 points to show and are bottom of the table, 14 points behind Hull City.
Portsmouth became the first Premier League club to go in to administration but anything is better than having to wind-up which is exactly what would have happened had the court decided in favour of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs who in March had served the club with an order to wind-up. Going into administration means basically allowing an insolvent (debt-ridden) company to continue trading with the hope/expectation that it will be able to survive. This is done my appointing an administrator whose duty it is to safeguard the interests of the company’s creditors. Portsmouth’s debt including taxes is £78 million and they will need another £20m to see-the-season-out. Andrew Andronikou of UHY Hacker Young, an insolvency practitioner has been appointed administrator to help them put their house in order.
Andrew Andronikou has a very good track record having helped Swindon Town with similar problems. He got off to great start by persuading the HMRC to formally drop their challenge over the validity of Portsmouth football club’s move into administration. Andronikou has vowed to help save the club and bring it out of administration in “six-eight weeks”. He said, ” I will be cutting to the bone, I can assure you. Restructuring starts today. There will be significant cost cuts at all levels. We have a huge job to deal with. I need to generate working capital in the next two months, we will have to sell one or two players but I am not looking to sell players on a fire-sale basis.”
Andronikou has since cut 85 jobs and put Peter Storrie the chief executive, on a salary of ”under £500,000″ until the club was sold. So this guy really does do what he says he will. Which is more than can be said of Portsmouth owner and ex-owners. The club has changed 4 owners this year alone.
Since the Premier League has deducted nine points it seems more likely now that it will allow Portsmouth to bring forward TV revenues and parachute payments to help see them through to the end of the season. The Premier League had earlier denied Portsmouth’s pleas for an advance of £5m it is owed in TV payments between now and the end of the season, and the £16m it will be due in parachute payments. Also Portsmouth’s current owner Balram Chainrai has offered a £15m overdraft to help the club. With a business consortium headed by Cheshire businessman Rob Lloyd already interested in buying the club it seems the six to eight week time frame for getting the club out of administration is achievable.
The administrator met Rob Lloyd and ruled out the group from being given an exclusitivity agreement, “I don’t think we are in a position to do that – they have to satisfy us in various other areas,” Andronikou said.”I also don’t want to discourage other interested parties.”
The fact that the consortium’s main backer remained anonymous and that their a lack of transparency surrounding the Lloyd’s consortium is what remained Andronikou’s main concern.
If Pompey fail to find an appropriate owner before the start of next season, with gate receipts going down and the wage and tax bill refusing to go away, they will find it very hard to assure the Football League of their financial ability to fulfill next season’s fixtures.
With football and the Premier League growing with each season, the need for better regulation of the industry has never been greater. The entire Portsmouth situation once again puts the focus on better administration of football clubs and the necessity of running football clubs as proper businesses. This unfortunate situation could have been avoided by the club altogether, had they not overspent, lived within their means, paid their taxes and balanced their books!
Hopefully, Andronikou will be Portsmouth’s knight in shining armour and will be able to find appropriate buyers for the crisis torn club. In case you have upwards of £30m lying around why not buy yourself a football club?
Tiger Woods has many records to his name and now he is taking on Barack Obama. No, Tiger isn’t running for President but it is speculated that his return will be one of if not the biggest media spectacle since Obama’s inauguration. The world no.1 who hasn’t played competitively since November 15, when he won the Australian Masters in Melbournesaid, “The major championships have always been a special focus in my career and, as a professional, I think Augusta is where I need to be, even though it’s been a while since I last played.”
“I have undergone almost two months of in-patient therapy and I am continuing my treatment. Although I’m returning to competition, I still have a lot of work to do in my personal life.”
The 34-year old golfer crashed his car outside his Florida home only a fortnight after winning in Melbourne. The seemingly innocuous incident lead to unexpected revelations about his personal life and a break from golf. Tiger Woods emerged only in February to apologise for his actions after he had been forced underground by the media frenzy. It had been hinted that he could make a comeback in March in Florida at the Travistock Cup tournament or at the Arnold Palmer Invitational which starts on the 25th of March.
So it comes as a pleasant surprise for his fans that he will be at the year’s first major at Augusta. However, many feel that his decision to make a comeback at the Masters is because traditionally the Masters’ galleries are more polite than anywhere else and because the media and public access is restricted. Tiger Woods is third in the all-time PGA Tour rankings in terms of career victories with 71 successes, only Sam Snead (83) and Jack Nicklaus (73) having done better than him.
Tiger Woods is not new to come-backs, he came back after his father’s death in 2002 and in 2008 he won the US Open at Torrey Pines while playing with a double stress fracture in his left shinbone.
The world’s fascination with this phenomenal golfer has always been very high and it has probably only increased after the revelations of his flaws. So it’s inevitable that the run-up to the first major championship of the year will be dominated by questions about Tiger Woods. His competitors might find this a tad annoying but his supporters couldn’t be happier.
David Beckham’s dream of playing in a fourth World Cup was brought to an end by an Achilles tendon injury. The LA Galaxy star who is on-loan to AC Milan ruptured his Achilles tendon during AC Milan’s match against Cheivo on Sunday. The midfielder pulled out of the centre circle whilst under no pressure from the opposition just two minutes from time. He hopped on his healthy leg to the touchline and after several minutes of treatment was carried to the dressing room on a stretcher in tears as he mouthed ”its broken, its broken” to the crowd.
The England international has already undergone surgery in Finland and his surgeon Sakari Orava confirmed that the operation was a success. When asked about the possibility of David Beckham being able to play in this year’s World Cup Mr Orava said, “No, I don’t think so….healing takes a long time,” he said. Beckham’s foot will be in a cast for around six-eight weeks, after which he can start “more vigorous” physiotherapy.
Due to the severity of the injury it was speculated that David Beckham’s career would be over, however, his agent Simon Oliviera inisited, “This is not the end of his playing career – as has been suggested.”
“Even if David does miss the World Cup, he is aiming to play [with LA Galaxy] towards the end of the Major League Soccer season.”
England coach Fabio Capello, who has yet to finalise his squad for the World Cup, said Beckham would be a loss for the finals in South Africa. ”David is a great professional and has worked very hard to be ready for the World Cup, so missing it will be a big blow,” he said.
David Beckham had really been hoping to be included in the England World Cup squad and his loan stints in Milan were a deliberate and most observers believe successful attempt to showcase his talent and match-turning abilities to the England manager. This latest injury just adds to the many heartbreaks suffered by David Beckham at previous World Cups. He was sent off in England’s match against Argentina blamed for England not winning the World Cup in 1998, in 2002, he was still recovering from a broken metatarsal in his foot and 2006 he had to retire hurt after sustaining a tear in his right Achilles tendon. Later, Beckham tearfully resigned from the England captaincy.
Beckham on his website said that he was upset but thanked everyone on for their messages and that he hopes “to make a swift and full recovery”.
Ok, here is a riddle for you.. What do football and topless models have in common? Well, Cristiano Ronaldo of-course! The world’s most expensive player who has always had a thing for women who shed their clothes for a living has reportedly been very interested in meeting Big Brother winner and topless model Sophie Reade. Sophie told the Daily Star, “I met Ronaldo when I was 18. I was having a meal with my boyfriend at the time.
“He cornered me on the way out the restaurant and asked for my number. I knew who he was but there was nothing I could do as my boyfriend dragged me away.
“But his manager recently rang my manager to see if I wanted to see him in Madrid. He is keen to meet me again apparently.”
Sophie revealed that the £80m striker is her passion even though she is a Liverpool supporter and thinks Cristiano is Spanish, but surely such things are mere trifles in matters of the heart.
The curvaceous star recently nauseated her followers on twitter by posting ”Just p*ssed in a starbucks cup in the car!! Classy I know hahaha”
When a bewildered and repulsed soul asked her as to what prompted her to divulge such an icky detail, Miss Reade replied simply with ”cos I’m honest.”
Oh in that case, post away ye truthful one! Such unparalleled honesty (thankfully!), sure makes it hard to not believe her claims about the Real Madrid star’s alleged interest.
The Soweto Gospel Choir is among many of the leading South African acts sidelined by foreign artists for the World Cup.
