Maybe this series of events, the "kill the Boer" song, the Boers who were, in fact, killed, the murder of white supremacist Eugene Terre Blanche ... maybe this just isn't going to go away anytime soon.
The Johannesburg Times has several stories about the current tensions.
One of them, here, is what we in journalism call a think piece ... about how the murder of Terre Blanche could reinvigorate the previously fading far right wing of the white political spectrum.
It is interesting and thorough, but a bit of a heavy read. Perhaps this sums it up:
"It is possible that the killing of Terre Blanche will greatly strengthen the hand of a new hardened right wing in South Africa. In life, Terre Blanche attracted a small, uninfluential, and extremist following. He will not be mourned for what he stood for. However, in death he may come to represent the experiences of scores of minority groups in the country who perceive themselves as being on the receiving end of racist and now also violent abuse from the ANC. In effect, therefore, Terre Blanche may be seen as having been martyred for a minority cause in the country."
There is more. Much more. Including audio from an angry scene outside a courthouse, with whites led by the AWB party on one side, and blacks on the other ... and a story that Terre Blanche's body was stripped ...
Again, we're back to thinking this is not a country that ought to be the scene of an international sports event in nine weeks.
This story, about how the body of Terre Blanche was stripped, is mostly tawdry and objectionable ... but some interesting atmosphere is described at the bottom, which we will copy here:
Racial tensions were high outside the court.
At least 50 police officers and a police helicopter monitored the scene. On several occasions the situation threatened to turn violent but did not.
The police kept AWB members and farmers, and the local black community, at a safe distance from each other.
The AWB supporters sang the old national anthem, Die Stem, and the black crowd sang Nkosi Sikelela iAfrika.
Four apartheid South Africa flags and about 20 Vierkleur flags were held up during the singing. The police intervened when insults, and a bottle of fruit juice, were hurled by a woman in the AWB camp, sparking a face-off between the two groups.
Racial slurs such as "Hulle is k*****s en bobbejaane" were shouted by AWB followers, some wearing T-shirts with the words "100% Boereseun" and "Staan saam of sterf alleen" (Stand together or die alone).
Local resident Keoagile Mookisi said: "These white people are angry. They think the death is political. They are calling us k*****s. Even on farms they call us k*****s. This is how we live."
Tiaan Theron, a farmer who travelled 1300km from Beaufort-West for the trial, said the extremists' sentiments were not shared by everyone. "Vengeance only comes through God," he said.
Here is some audio from a reporter on the scene. Clearly, it was not an ice-cream-social kind of setting.
The African National Congress, which controls the government, apparently has ordered Youth Leader Julius Malema, a massively polarizing figure, to stop singing the "kill the Boer" song. Orders he may or may not obey.
And while we are plowing through an alarming but significant group of stories, consider this one: Where a South African policeman shot to death four whites he said were racially taunting him and were going to attack him.
Other countries around the world -- say, the United States -- have race-based hate. But when it comes to killing, U.S. police consistently maintain that it overwhelming stays within a racial group. Whites kill whites, blacks kill blacks, etc.
And this is just a ridiculous reason for four men to end up dead -- an argument that began over a "joke" about penis size.
What will be interesting to see is if South Africa gets a grip on the situation as the World Cup draws near.
What is fascinating, and perhaps very telling, is how all these stories of anger and hate and suspicion ... seem to live in their own seething universe. No one seems at all interested (angry populace, or media) in taking into account how this looks on the world stage ... how this plays in the living rooms of the rest of the world.
It is as if a big part of South Africa is so focused on its internal hate that it can't even be bothered to consider it has the biggest event in global sports coming to its shores two months hence.
Soccer fans, not to mention Fifa, have to find that alarming.
Read more!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Back to the Toy Department
After two days of dealing with weighty issues, we return to issues considered weighty by those involved ... but, ultimately delightfully frivolous. Which is what sports is about, is it not?
It is the latest eruption in the long-running "club vs. country" debate.
Over most of the eight-month history of this blog, club coaches have been going after national coaches for pushing their lads too hard, allowing them to aggravate injuries and putting their World Cup activities at risk. Cristiano Ronaldo comes to mind.
This time, it is the national coach who is irate, and the club coach who is on the defensive.
Specifically, we have Raymond Domenech of France attacking Arsene Wenger, also a Frenchmen, but in this case more importantly the coach of English club team Arsenal.
Wenger played William Gallas, a top French defender most recently notorious with les bleus for scoring the goal after Thierry Henry's infamous handball vs. Ireland. Anyway, Wenger started Gallas in a high-profile Champions League match vs. Barcelona.
Gallas had been struggling with a calf injury, and had been out for weeks. His comeback didn't last until halftime; Gallas reinjured his calf in the match with Barca and now will be out more than a month.
Which has Domenech hopping mad. "I'm livid and pissed off," Domenech told reporters. "It's outrageous and irresponsible to have played him so early after the injury. It's scandalous. He'd better be fit for the World Cup."
Meanwhile, Wenger is not exactly apologizing.
"I don't think it will cost him (Gallas) his World Cup," Wenger said. "I believe he declared himself fit and I have the reports from the rehabilitation center where he worked for 10 days and he had four days training with the team. Maybe we should have taken some more time but he was jumping, running up and down the stairs in France, had very hard sessions. At some stage you are in a job where you have to produce performances."
He added that it was Gallas's decision, too.
Said Wenger: "Gallas was born in 1977 - he's 32 - so you ask a player of that experience, 'do you feel ready to play? Have you worked hard enough? Do you feel ready to go into this game?' When they say yes you have to believe them. We have to first take care of the interests of Arsenal.
"The French national team is important, but Arsenal is, as well, and he is paid by the club, not the French national team. We have to use the players when they declare themselves fit."
Somehow, we doubt that mollified Domenech, who may be without one of his starting XI. And will have to make a decision on him by May 18.
This won't be the last we hear of these problems. Not with club seasons reaching their climax and the World Cup barely nine weeks away. But these are problems we can handle.
Read more!
It is the latest eruption in the long-running "club vs. country" debate.
Over most of the eight-month history of this blog, club coaches have been going after national coaches for pushing their lads too hard, allowing them to aggravate injuries and putting their World Cup activities at risk. Cristiano Ronaldo comes to mind.
This time, it is the national coach who is irate, and the club coach who is on the defensive.
Specifically, we have Raymond Domenech of France attacking Arsene Wenger, also a Frenchmen, but in this case more importantly the coach of English club team Arsenal.
Wenger played William Gallas, a top French defender most recently notorious with les bleus for scoring the goal after Thierry Henry's infamous handball vs. Ireland. Anyway, Wenger started Gallas in a high-profile Champions League match vs. Barcelona.
Gallas had been struggling with a calf injury, and had been out for weeks. His comeback didn't last until halftime; Gallas reinjured his calf in the match with Barca and now will be out more than a month.
Which has Domenech hopping mad. "I'm livid and pissed off," Domenech told reporters. "It's outrageous and irresponsible to have played him so early after the injury. It's scandalous. He'd better be fit for the World Cup."
Meanwhile, Wenger is not exactly apologizing.
"I don't think it will cost him (Gallas) his World Cup," Wenger said. "I believe he declared himself fit and I have the reports from the rehabilitation center where he worked for 10 days and he had four days training with the team. Maybe we should have taken some more time but he was jumping, running up and down the stairs in France, had very hard sessions. At some stage you are in a job where you have to produce performances."
He added that it was Gallas's decision, too.
Said Wenger: "Gallas was born in 1977 - he's 32 - so you ask a player of that experience, 'do you feel ready to play? Have you worked hard enough? Do you feel ready to go into this game?' When they say yes you have to believe them. We have to first take care of the interests of Arsenal.
"The French national team is important, but Arsenal is, as well, and he is paid by the club, not the French national team. We have to use the players when they declare themselves fit."
Somehow, we doubt that mollified Domenech, who may be without one of his starting XI. And will have to make a decision on him by May 18.
This won't be the last we hear of these problems. Not with club seasons reaching their climax and the World Cup barely nine weeks away. But these are problems we can handle.
Read more!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Well, This Is a Start to Chilling Out
The right-wing party that the day before vowed revenge for the murder of white supremacist Eugene Terre Blanche ... today backed away from the threat of violence.
This is a welcome reduction in rhetoric in a country teetering on the brink of, well, let's call it what it would be ... a race war. Just as the 2010 World Cup is hoving into view.
The move away from the "vengeance" stance also came on the same day as the South African Communist Party condemned the killing of Terre Blanche ... putting the communists squarely in the camp of careful moderation.
Who knew?
Overall, it was a day for chilling out. With some exceptions.
The spokesman for the ABW party, which represents the hard right of Afrikaner politics, said that "In the heat of the moment certain statements were made, and I would like to retract those statements." He maintained it was the party's policy "that no member will engage in any form of violence, intimidation, racial slandering or anything of that (sort). It will not be tolerated." He said, however, it was difficult to keep the party's members "calm."
However, the ABW seems likely to call for a portion of South Africa to be ceded to whites, apparently on the "homeland" basis that the apartheid regime used to fence off ethnic minorities. Interesting concept.
Julius Malema, however, appears to represent a flash point here, with the ABW calling for president Jacob Zuma to muzzle the ANC's Youth League leader.
The spokesman said Zuma's first job should be "closing Julius Malema's mouth," suggesting that he go back to school and join the boy scouts "so that he can learn humility."
Anyway, a day of cooling tensions. Everyone interested in the World Cup, or an orderly world, has to be pleased. Read more!
This is a welcome reduction in rhetoric in a country teetering on the brink of, well, let's call it what it would be ... a race war. Just as the 2010 World Cup is hoving into view.
The move away from the "vengeance" stance also came on the same day as the South African Communist Party condemned the killing of Terre Blanche ... putting the communists squarely in the camp of careful moderation.
Who knew?
Overall, it was a day for chilling out. With some exceptions.
The spokesman for the ABW party, which represents the hard right of Afrikaner politics, said that "In the heat of the moment certain statements were made, and I would like to retract those statements." He maintained it was the party's policy "that no member will engage in any form of violence, intimidation, racial slandering or anything of that (sort). It will not be tolerated." He said, however, it was difficult to keep the party's members "calm."
However, the ABW seems likely to call for a portion of South Africa to be ceded to whites, apparently on the "homeland" basis that the apartheid regime used to fence off ethnic minorities. Interesting concept.
Julius Malema, however, appears to represent a flash point here, with the ABW calling for president Jacob Zuma to muzzle the ANC's Youth League leader.
The spokesman said Zuma's first job should be "closing Julius Malema's mouth," suggesting that he go back to school and join the boy scouts "so that he can learn humility."
Anyway, a day of cooling tensions. Everyone interested in the World Cup, or an orderly world, has to be pleased. Read more!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
This is Real Trouble in South Africa
Those with security concerns pertaining to the 2010 World Cup appear to have been looking in the wrong direction.
Imported terror? Terror from outsiders?
Maybe not all that big an issue. And never was.
The problem in South Africa has always been internal violence. And never more than right at this minute.
The country doesn't have a race war. Yet. But it has taken more than a few steps down that path over the past week. And it would seem as if most sensible outsiders would not want to visit a country where people are being killed on the basis of their skin color. Race wars are really bad for tourism.
The latest: The murder of another white farmer/rancher, but this time it was the infamous white supremacist Eugene Terre Blanche. Whose political associates seem to be vowing revenge.
This is getting ugly. No other way to describe it. And the Johannesburg Times doesn't sugarcoat the situation when it runs a story with this headline: "Fears of racial tensions grow." Uh, yeah.
Backing up a bit.
South Africa has had problems of late with Afrikaner farmers being attacked and killed. "Afrikaner" meaning, in South Africa, the mostly Dutch-Huguenot whites (also known as Boers) who dominated politics for most of the last century. Who erected the apartheid regime.
In theory, South Africa got past all this during the reconciliation period of the mid-1990s. When its black majority took control of the government.
In practice, the reconciliation at the moment looks more like a patch than a cure. Demagogues on both sides are trying to ride racial tension into personal power. As the Johannesburg Times wrote in an editorial today, "There is evidence across our society that the spirit of reconciliation that that characterized the transfer of power is wearing thin in a country still divided by one of the world's widest wealth gaps."
Perhaps the most obvious case of an individual who seems to be fanning the fires to advance his own agenda is the odious lout Julius Malema, president of the African National Congress Youth League and all-around embarrassment to the nation.
A few weeks ago, he led students in Johannesburg in a chorus of a ANC anthem that includes the words, "Kill the Boer."
That led to various South African political groups going to court asking that the song be classified as "hate speech" and banned. And it was, much to Malema's annoyance. But not before several more white farmers were murdered. Killings which some whites have laid at Malema's feet. At the least, the timing was unfortunate for those who prefer peace.
And then a few days ago, Malema went to Zimbabwe, just north of South Africa, a failed state of epic proportions, sang the "Kill the Boer" song again, embraced Zimbabwe's disastrous president, Robert Mugabe, and then suggested that South Africa would do well to follow Mugabe's ruinous example and nationalize farms and mines owned by whites.
Now we have real problems. On several levels.
--Mugabe's economic/racial policies essentially destroyed Zimbabwe, a country that was once self-sufficient in food stuffs and now is an abject charity case. However much animus black Africans hold toward white farmers, the reality is that they were the bedrock of the Zimbabwe economy. Many have fled; others have had their property seized by Mugabe's party. Some have been killed.
--South Africa was supposed to be the anti-Zimbabwe. The exception, where the colonial whites could stay on and prosper and build the country along with black Africans. In part, this would work because the Afrikaners, the Boers, have been in the country so long they feel it is as much theirs as anyone else's. In part, because Nelson Mandela and other far-sighted black leaders decided South Africa needed all its citizens, not just its black ones. But now, just as the World Cup is coming into view, this social compact is fraying dangerously.
--The Afrikaner minority, especially the farmers, and especially when provoked, are a very hard bunch, and prone to violence. They fought the British to a standstill during the Boer War of 1898, at the height of Britain's power. A minority of perhaps 20 percent of the population enforced the race-based apartheid system for decades, helped prop up Rhodesia (Zimbabwe, but when whites still ruled), ran Namibia and intervened in the Angolan civil war. All at the same time. It must be assumed they are well-armed, hard and organized men. They would not win a civil war, but anyone with an ounce of brainpower should be keen to see it never, ever comes to that.
Before, we've talked about expensive airlines and hotels. And a high murder rate. South Africa has issues on those fronts.
What is going on right this minute, however, it by far the most dangerous moment for South Africa 2010 since the country was awarded the World Cup. Rest assured, Sepp Blatter is watching this very, very closely. Fifa risks dropping its big event into a country dividing into armed camps. A potential disaster.
This might be a good time for Fifa to flex some of that muscle it likes to use and go directly to Jacob Zuma and tell the president to muzzle Julius Malema, make sure the police actually do investigate the murder of Terre Blanche and other farmers ... and not allow white extremists to gain any momentum among the trigger-happy fringe.
This is a dangerous situation. It bears close and ongoing examination. Read more!
Imported terror? Terror from outsiders?
Maybe not all that big an issue. And never was.
The problem in South Africa has always been internal violence. And never more than right at this minute.
The country doesn't have a race war. Yet. But it has taken more than a few steps down that path over the past week. And it would seem as if most sensible outsiders would not want to visit a country where people are being killed on the basis of their skin color. Race wars are really bad for tourism.
The latest: The murder of another white farmer/rancher, but this time it was the infamous white supremacist Eugene Terre Blanche. Whose political associates seem to be vowing revenge.
This is getting ugly. No other way to describe it. And the Johannesburg Times doesn't sugarcoat the situation when it runs a story with this headline: "Fears of racial tensions grow." Uh, yeah.
Backing up a bit.
South Africa has had problems of late with Afrikaner farmers being attacked and killed. "Afrikaner" meaning, in South Africa, the mostly Dutch-Huguenot whites (also known as Boers) who dominated politics for most of the last century. Who erected the apartheid regime.
In theory, South Africa got past all this during the reconciliation period of the mid-1990s. When its black majority took control of the government.
In practice, the reconciliation at the moment looks more like a patch than a cure. Demagogues on both sides are trying to ride racial tension into personal power. As the Johannesburg Times wrote in an editorial today, "There is evidence across our society that the spirit of reconciliation that that characterized the transfer of power is wearing thin in a country still divided by one of the world's widest wealth gaps."
Perhaps the most obvious case of an individual who seems to be fanning the fires to advance his own agenda is the odious lout Julius Malema, president of the African National Congress Youth League and all-around embarrassment to the nation.
A few weeks ago, he led students in Johannesburg in a chorus of a ANC anthem that includes the words, "Kill the Boer."
That led to various South African political groups going to court asking that the song be classified as "hate speech" and banned. And it was, much to Malema's annoyance. But not before several more white farmers were murdered. Killings which some whites have laid at Malema's feet. At the least, the timing was unfortunate for those who prefer peace.
And then a few days ago, Malema went to Zimbabwe, just north of South Africa, a failed state of epic proportions, sang the "Kill the Boer" song again, embraced Zimbabwe's disastrous president, Robert Mugabe, and then suggested that South Africa would do well to follow Mugabe's ruinous example and nationalize farms and mines owned by whites.
Now we have real problems. On several levels.
--Mugabe's economic/racial policies essentially destroyed Zimbabwe, a country that was once self-sufficient in food stuffs and now is an abject charity case. However much animus black Africans hold toward white farmers, the reality is that they were the bedrock of the Zimbabwe economy. Many have fled; others have had their property seized by Mugabe's party. Some have been killed.
--South Africa was supposed to be the anti-Zimbabwe. The exception, where the colonial whites could stay on and prosper and build the country along with black Africans. In part, this would work because the Afrikaners, the Boers, have been in the country so long they feel it is as much theirs as anyone else's. In part, because Nelson Mandela and other far-sighted black leaders decided South Africa needed all its citizens, not just its black ones. But now, just as the World Cup is coming into view, this social compact is fraying dangerously.
--The Afrikaner minority, especially the farmers, and especially when provoked, are a very hard bunch, and prone to violence. They fought the British to a standstill during the Boer War of 1898, at the height of Britain's power. A minority of perhaps 20 percent of the population enforced the race-based apartheid system for decades, helped prop up Rhodesia (Zimbabwe, but when whites still ruled), ran Namibia and intervened in the Angolan civil war. All at the same time. It must be assumed they are well-armed, hard and organized men. They would not win a civil war, but anyone with an ounce of brainpower should be keen to see it never, ever comes to that.
Before, we've talked about expensive airlines and hotels. And a high murder rate. South Africa has issues on those fronts.
What is going on right this minute, however, it by far the most dangerous moment for South Africa 2010 since the country was awarded the World Cup. Rest assured, Sepp Blatter is watching this very, very closely. Fifa risks dropping its big event into a country dividing into armed camps. A potential disaster.
This might be a good time for Fifa to flex some of that muscle it likes to use and go directly to Jacob Zuma and tell the president to muzzle Julius Malema, make sure the police actually do investigate the murder of Terre Blanche and other farmers ... and not allow white extremists to gain any momentum among the trigger-happy fringe.
This is a dangerous situation. It bears close and ongoing examination. Read more!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Diego Bitten during Kiss Goodnight
This would be vaguely sweet if it weren't so obviously silly.
Diego Maradona, he who was hospitalized and took sutures when his dog bit him ... was "saying goodnight" to his Shar Pei when he got nipped. Well, more than nipped. He needed 10 stitches to close a wound on his lip.
Read about it here. It's just too good.
There's a joke here somewhere about kissing dogs ... Make one up yourself.
His doctor says Diego told him "it's common he gets close to the dog like this before he goes to bed."
Have we already suggested that Diego is capable of anything ... and anything can happen to him?
Well, we're saying it again.
And, meantime, he may want to keep his face out of his dog's face. That might have been the clearest message here. "Hey, dude, back off. You're creeping me out." Read more!
Diego Maradona, he who was hospitalized and took sutures when his dog bit him ... was "saying goodnight" to his Shar Pei when he got nipped. Well, more than nipped. He needed 10 stitches to close a wound on his lip.
Read about it here. It's just too good.
There's a joke here somewhere about kissing dogs ... Make one up yourself.
His doctor says Diego told him "it's common he gets close to the dog like this before he goes to bed."
Have we already suggested that Diego is capable of anything ... and anything can happen to him?
Well, we're saying it again.
And, meantime, he may want to keep his face out of his dog's face. That might have been the clearest message here. "Hey, dude, back off. You're creeping me out." Read more!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Up Next: Copyright on 'World'
Fifa is outta control!
Three South African companies that make calendars are going to take the world soccer organizing body to court over its claims that "2010" is an intellectual property belonging to Fifa.
No. Really.
Here is the story.
The Johannesburg Sunday Times pokes fun at the concept, a big, by putting one of those little "TM" notations after the number 2010. You know, just in case Fifa's legal beagles go after the newspaper.
Seems hard to imagine that Fifa could actually sue the companies for "breach" of special legislation passed a year ago.
What's next? Newspapers printed with only the day and the month -- and not the year?
Schoolkids warned to leave 2010 off the papers they turn in?
Sports leagues referring to the "season after the 2009 season" when talking about 2010?
Or maybe a Fifa lawyer calling me up and demanding we change the name of this blog from countdown-sa2010 to something else. Perhaps countdown-safifaworldcup2010?
I wouldn't put anything past these guys. Read more!
Three South African companies that make calendars are going to take the world soccer organizing body to court over its claims that "2010" is an intellectual property belonging to Fifa.
No. Really.
Here is the story.
The Johannesburg Sunday Times pokes fun at the concept, a big, by putting one of those little "TM" notations after the number 2010. You know, just in case Fifa's legal beagles go after the newspaper.
Seems hard to imagine that Fifa could actually sue the companies for "breach" of special legislation passed a year ago.
What's next? Newspapers printed with only the day and the month -- and not the year?
Schoolkids warned to leave 2010 off the papers they turn in?
Sports leagues referring to the "season after the 2009 season" when talking about 2010?
Or maybe a Fifa lawyer calling me up and demanding we change the name of this blog from countdown-sa2010 to something else. Perhaps countdown-safifaworldcup2010?
I wouldn't put anything past these guys. Read more!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Fabregas, Rooney Injured; World Cup at Risk?
They went down on consecutive nights. Two of the best players in the English Premier League. And the world.
Their Premiership seasons are at risk.
The question here is: Are their South Africa 2010 plans in jeopardy?
We must wait and see. But two days after Cesc Fabregas of Spain/Arsenal and Wayne Rooney of England/Manchester United were hurt, here are the early indications:
--Fabregas is in trouble. He suffered a broken leg while taking a penalty in the 85th minute of a Champions League game with Barcelona. He will be out at least six weeks, according to his club coach, Arsene Wenger. And with the World Cup only 10 weeks away, it's difficult to imagine he will be in peak condition for South Africa.
Spain is not hurting for talent. It has great players nearly everywhere. Actually, Espana started Fabregas only three times during qualifying. But he has grown in the past year, and you can't lose a player of his caliber and not be the less for it. And you can't play a Fabregas who isn't quite healthy and be the same team. So he bears close watching.
--Rooney may be OK. He rolled his ankle violently in ManU's match with Bayern Munich. But the team said today nothing is broken. Just "ligament damage" is what they are calling it. Which sounds like trainer-speak for a sprain. Now, sprains are nothing to sniff at, especially for a big lad like Rooney. His immediate availability with ManU is going to suffer, but if he gets some time to heal he ought to be ready for South Africa.
Clearly, all serious fans want all the top players to be healthy. That's what the World Cup should be about. The best against the best. But the endless club seasons make it a near-certainty that some elite players won't be there. Those who get hurt in the next few weeks are even more like to miss the Big Event.
Read more!
Their Premiership seasons are at risk.
The question here is: Are their South Africa 2010 plans in jeopardy?
We must wait and see. But two days after Cesc Fabregas of Spain/Arsenal and Wayne Rooney of England/Manchester United were hurt, here are the early indications:
--Fabregas is in trouble. He suffered a broken leg while taking a penalty in the 85th minute of a Champions League game with Barcelona. He will be out at least six weeks, according to his club coach, Arsene Wenger. And with the World Cup only 10 weeks away, it's difficult to imagine he will be in peak condition for South Africa.
Spain is not hurting for talent. It has great players nearly everywhere. Actually, Espana started Fabregas only three times during qualifying. But he has grown in the past year, and you can't lose a player of his caliber and not be the less for it. And you can't play a Fabregas who isn't quite healthy and be the same team. So he bears close watching.
--Rooney may be OK. He rolled his ankle violently in ManU's match with Bayern Munich. But the team said today nothing is broken. Just "ligament damage" is what they are calling it. Which sounds like trainer-speak for a sprain. Now, sprains are nothing to sniff at, especially for a big lad like Rooney. His immediate availability with ManU is going to suffer, but if he gets some time to heal he ought to be ready for South Africa.
Clearly, all serious fans want all the top players to be healthy. That's what the World Cup should be about. The best against the best. But the endless club seasons make it a near-certainty that some elite players won't be there. Those who get hurt in the next few weeks are even more like to miss the Big Event.
Read more!
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