INJURY TIME
TAKING SA FOR FOOLS
THE South African Fools Association (Safa) really do take their job very seriously.
That organisation had some time back come up with a guidance document called Vision 2022. So, recently it offered a report back on progress aligned to Vision 2022 and called the whole thing a big success. Never mind that the national men’s football team – supposedly the pinnacle of the sport in this country – failed again to qualify for the continent’s premier tournament. Nah man, according to the Foolball Association, it’s all good. The Confederation of African Football had actually expanded the Africa Cup of Nations, from 16 teams to 24 and still Bafana Bafana failed to qualify, but it’s ok, that’s not actually part of Vision 2022. As far as the South African Fools Association is concerned, Vision 2022 is just a thing that is there to tell everyone that the year 2022 is coming – Safa has envisioned it. And football will be played, just not Bafana Bafana.
CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK
CHIPPA United change coaches like normal people change socks, but this drama about Luc Eymael seems bizarre. The internet tells us he’s managed 18 different clubs and won titles in the Congo and Gabon. He got into a bit of trouble in Tanzania where he allegedly called fans of a club he was coaching there “illiterate and monkeys,” and was subsequently fired. Never mind all that, Chippa United reckoned he should coach them. The SA Fools Association apparently cleared the path for that to happen until the media pointed out the “illiterate monkeys” stuff and Chippa were forced into an aboutturn, which didn’t go down well with Chippa’s management. They called the SABC biased (huh) and now Eymael is gone somewhere else that is not South Africa.
"Do you honestly think a guy who is a racist and is completely guilty, is going to continue to try to work in a country where he knows that people are trying to do him wrong? He is not that stupid, trust me," Eymael’s agent, Brett Arthur, told kickoff. com
OH RAMIZ
IN the wake of the controversy dished up by Quinton de Kock’s ‘involvement’ in the run-out of Pakistan opener Fakhar Zaman last week, some other tales of cheeky wicketkeepers emerged. Ramiz Raja, the former Pakistan international and now well-known TV commentator recalled an incident in an ODI against India in
1987 when he was flummoxed by Indian wicketkeeper Sadanand Viswanath. The Indian keeper "tried to make believe he had missed the ball and I was run out," Raja recalled. Raja was understandably furious, but at the non-striker’s end his teammate Javed Miandad burst out laughing.
YIKES
BOY, Imran Khan and Sourav Ganguly may be from different countries, who don’t see eye to eye on a lot of issues.
But this week they shared some archaic and just plain wrong perspectives on women in Khan’s case and mental health in Ganguly’s. Perhaps because Imran was such a playboy – and not just on the field – back in the day, he retains many of the perspectives from the ’70s. Ganguly could do with some reading a bit more before opening his mouth about cricketers’ mental faculties. Some might say the duo should pipe down, but no, we know where they stand and what they think now. Perhaps the Pakistan prime minister should try listening to women, and Ganguly should have a go at re-educating himself about mental health.