The Politics Of South African Football

The Politics of South African Football is the story of people whose vehement resistance and declaration that there could be no normal sport in an abnormal society proved to be a powerful antidote to the apartheid governments assurances that all was well. Oshebeng Alphie Koonyaditse gives an inspiring account of the event-filled journey that led to that memorable Saturday of May 15, 2004. For the first time in World Cup history South Africa, and indeed Africa, won the right to host the nations of the world at the FIFA World Cup in 2010. Yet, South African football history began long before that, and in fact goes back to before the formation of FIFA in 1904.

In South Africa there are times when nothing is more important than soccer (football). Laduma! is an immensely informative and vital account of the history of the game in South Africa. In explaining how soccer - a sport imported with colonialism - came to be a mainstay of black sporting experience, it explores the Africanization of the game with the introduction of rituals and magic, and the emergence of distinctive playing styles. Using archival research, interviews, newspaper and magazine articles, advertisements and photos, Laduma! chronicles the impact of indigenous sporting traditions such as stick fighting, the rise of Orlando Pirates, the emergence of rivals Moroka Swallows, and the power struggles between different football associations and white authorities. Soccer influenced class and generational divisions, shaped masculine identities, and served as a mobilizing force for township and political organizations. Laduma! embodies sporting history at its best and will be of interest to ardent soccer fans as well as more serious scholars of African history.

This book explores the role of FIFA in brokering the development of football in Africa and its relationship with that continent's football associations and regional governing body. Africa is no longer on the periphery of world football but the economic disparities between the first and the third worlds hinder the development of the game. The author shows convincingly how Africa's advance within world football is tied to its national political economy and how the balance of power within FIFA still clearly favours its European members.

Firmly situating South African teams, players, and associations in the international framework in which they have to compete, South Africa and the Global Game: Football, Apartheid, and Beyond presents an interdisciplinary analysis of how and why South Africa underwent a remarkable transformation from a pariah in world sport to the first African host of a World Cup in 2010. Written by an eminent team of scholars, this special issue and book aims to examine the importance of football in South African society, revealing how the black oppression transformed a colonial game into a force for political, cultural and social liberation. It explores how the hosting of the 2010 World Cup aims to enhance the prestige of the post-apartheid nation, to generate economic growth and stimulate Pan-African pride. Among the themes dealt with are race and racism, class and gender dynamics, social identities, mass media and culture, and globalization. This collection of original and insightful essays will appeal to specialists in African Studies, Cultural Studies, and Sport Studies, as well as to non-specialist readers seeking to inform themselves ahead of the 2010 World Cup. This book was published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.

Firmly situating South African teams, players, and associations in the international framework in which they have to compete, South Africa and the Global Game: Football, Apartheid, and Beyond presents an interdisciplinary analysis of how and why South Africa underwent a remarkable transformation from a pariah in world sport to the first African host of a World Cup in 2010. Written by an eminent team of scholars, this special issue and book aims to examine the importance of football in South African society, revealing how the black oppression transformed a colonial game into a force for political, cultural and social liberation. It explores how the hosting of the 2010 World Cup aims to enhance the prestige of the post-apartheid nation, to generate economic growth and stimulate Pan-African pride. Among the themes dealt with are race and racism, class and gender dynamics, social identities, mass media and culture, and globalization. This collection of original and insightful essays will appeal to specialists in African Studies, Cultural Studies, and Sport Studies, as well as to non-specialist readers seeking to inform themselves ahead of the 2010 World Cup. This book was published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.

This book explores the role of FIFA in brokering the development of football in Africa and its relationship with that continent's football associations and regional governing body. Africa is no longer on the periphery of world football but the economic disparities between the first and the third worlds hinder the development of the game. The author shows convincingly how Africa's advance within world football is tied to its national political economy and how the balance of power within FIFA still clearly favours its European members.

As athletes of today grapple with how to use their public platforms to fight for activist causes, Sport and Apartheid South Africa: Histories of Politics, Power, and Protest examines a set of longer histories of sport, ‘race’, and activism. The book seeks to uncover and understand new historical aspects of apartheid and sport, challenge myths, and rethink dominant narratives. It examines the subject of racially segregated sport in South Africa from national and transnational perspectives, asking questions about how athletes and administrators, transnational anti-apartheid groups and activists, and politicians around the world interpreted and internalized racial segregation in South Africa. By connecting the local to the global, this book illuminates the ways in which apartheid sport animated national and international debates, ranging from racism and human rights to Cold War politics and post-colonialism. Sport and Apartheid South Africa is a significant new contribution to the study of race and politics in sport and will be a great resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of History, Politics, International Relations, Sociology, and Political Geography. The chapters in this book were originally published in The International Journal of the History of Sport.

1999 North American Society for Sports History Book of the Year Douglas Booth looks at the role of sport in the fostering of a new national identity in South Africa. He analyzes the effect of the 30-year sport boycott but concludes that sport will never unite South Africans except in the most fleeting and superficial manner.