Sport Matters

On January 2 2023, ahead of the burial of football great Pele, Fifa president Giovanni Infantino, who was in the city of Santos in Brazil to pay his final respects, spoke openly with the told local media about his wish for every Fifa-member country to name a stadium after Pele. True to form, the response by the leader of the South African FA Danny Jordaan was erratic to say the least. Seemingly overwhelmed by what should be a reasonable request especially for the developing world which produced Pele, Jordaan said Infantino's proposal was "a tricky thing for South Africa". “We will have to wait and see what he [Infantino] is proposing because... I mean Pele was very supportive of us as SA. What’s best for now is to wait for Fifa’s full proposal and then we will have to discuss it. The tricky thing in SA is that stadiums are owned by different entities, including local governments, so a lot of people need to be consulted if this is to be a reality in this country.”

  Algeria players celebrate the penalty goal by striker Aymen Mahious as CHAN 2023 hosts beat Libya 1-0 in the opening match of the tournament.  The 2023 edition of the African Nations Championship, better known as CHAN, started as scheduled on Friday 13 January in front of a strong crowd at the Nelson Mandela Stadium with hosts Algeria overcoming Libya by 1-0. The new state-of-the-art stadium in the Algiers suburb of Baraki was opened exactly ahead of CHAN 2023, as the key venue for the tournament. Subsequent matches offered a fair share of entertainment, with Saturday's Ivory Coast v Senegal providing a display of West Africa power until the Elephants emerged 1-0 victorious. But it was the six-goal thriller yesterday, between Mali and Angola, which offered a lot more as the two countries shared the spoils. However, the tournament could not avoid any controversy in its early stages when Morocco failed to pitch against Sudan on Monday evening in Constantine. It boils down to