South Africa 2010 has been a success. It's official. The world's second best newspaper (after the Mail & Guardian of course), the Financial Times, said so today. In an editorial. So it must be true. The naysayers and racists were wrong; Africa ca...
Views: 273 | No Comments » | posted on Friday, July 9th, 2010 | Tags: none
To have lost 3-0 would have been better, far better, than this. Sport, mirroring life, can be cruel. Very cruel.
Ghana had showed such character and discipline in withstanding Uruguay's sustained initial onslaught, carefully restoring parity in p...
The biggest game of the tournament is upon us. Every World Cup has a game such this -- a final outside of the final so to speak. When the two teams that are probably the best -- or, at least, the most effective and on-form -- meet. Brazil vs Holland ...
I am not sure which was more scary. The hairy, heavy Vry Staater in a boep-clinging Bafana shirt or the big black dude beneath a Bloem Celtic cap I encountered in the gents at half time on Tuesday. As I manoeuvred between them to attend to pressing m...
After all Sepp Blatter's blather about an 'African World Cup', the sad irony is that we are on the verge of the unthinkable: that none of the six African teams will make it through to the second round. All six pack, but no cigar -- is one way of putt...
I thought I was getting away from politics for a while. But I now realise that the vuvuzela is to these World Cup blogs what Julius Malema is to my politics columns: a noisy, but sadly unavoidable irritant. With both Malema and the vuvuzela, their im...
There is not much point in having a World Cup blog on such a respectable website if you are not going to take the opportunity to masquerade as an expert football analyst. By profession I am a lawyer, by instinct a sports commentator. And having atten...
There are some moments in life where you have to put aside well-honed cynicism and a diligently instilled sense of perspective. So it was for me on Friday. My usual column on politics -- Contretemps -- was on page 32 of the Mail & Guardian and it...
Richard Calland is a political analyst and constitutional lawyer, as well as a columnist for the Mail & Guardian -- Contretemps has appeared regularly since 2001. He jointly runs a niche film production company, 3PLAY Productions, which focuses on sport and politics; its first film, Black Stars: An African Football Odyssey, was screened on Channel 4 in December 2008.
Richard's links
Book SA blog My blog on a website that promotes South African literature and authors
