Alrighty, so it’s been a while…and in the world of sports, a whole lot can happen in a while, let me tell you.
Record-breaking performances. Cheating scandals. COVID-related cancellations. And – of course – new lockdown rules and regulations.
It’s a lot.
That’s why every week we take a quick look around and round up the most interesting sports writings out there…so you don’t have to.
Anyway, here’s what we found out in the last 168 hours or so…
Football
Okay, so good news first: amateur football is back! The South African Football Association (SAFA) has welcomed the government’s decision to grant permission for all football activities in the country, including at grassroots level, to resume immediately. The 2020/21 PSL campaign gets underway this weekend with the annual MTN8 competition.
Four Cape Town rising women football stars have been selected for a training camp of Banyana Banyana as the team prepares for the upcoming COSAFA Cup. The English Football League has unveiled proposals to overhaul competitive soccer in the country and narrow a yawning wealth gap between elite clubs and lower-ranking teams. And Premier Soccer League goal-scoring has exploded, with new records being set for goal scoring by week, month and more. But all this comes while the coronavirus is laying players low. Cristiano Ronaldo tested positive and has had to self-isolate. And the Czech Republic had to field a squad of debutants after the previous squad tested positive and went into quarantine. They lost, by the way.
Rugby: Amateurs Return, Super Rugby Unlocked, Vote For The World’s Greatest
As with football, SA Rugby has advised amateur clubs, universities, associate members and schools that rugby training can resume (with strict adherence to the requirements of the SA Rugby Return to Train and Play Guidelines for Amateur Rugby).
Meanwhile, the Springboks will not be participating in the 2020 Rugby Championships in Australia at the end of the year, citing travel restrictions and concerns over player welfare. But SA Rugby is still back in business, with seven teams slugging it out at the just-kicked-off Super Rugby Unlocked competition. And SA Rugby director of rugby and Springbok great Bryan Habana have been named in World Rugby’s interim committees.
And World Rugby has announced that fans around the world will have a say in the World Rugby Awards Special Edition by selecting the best players and tries of the decade (2010-2019). South Africans up for awards are Pieter-Steph du Toit, Cecil Afrika, Werner Kok, Seabelo Senatla, Bryan Habana and Francois Hougaard. Let the fan debates begin!
Chess: Champions, Cheats & Checking For The GOAT
Chess has been around for…oh, a millennium or so. And it’s only becoming more popular these days, with over 600 million players worldwide. So while Chess SA is going online (check out the regulations), tens of thousands of viewers have been tuning in to watch people play chess (and share memes) on a livestreaming website called Twitch.tv.
So when Jan Gustafsson and Peter Heine Nielsen set out to find the 50 greatest players of all time, it’s safe to say it’s going to be a big job. One name that’s definitely a GOAT contender: Magnus Carlsen, who took top spot at the 2020 Altibox Norway Chess tournament…but lost two games along the way, ending an epic record 125-classical-game no-loss streak. Complicating the quest for the chess best: the epidemic of cyber cheating that’s come with the massive boom in online chess during the pandemic, as players use powerful chess apps and programs to cheat on a scale reminiscent of the scandals that have dogged cycling and athletics. Not kewl, folks.
Cycling, FIFA, Athletics, Cricket: Cheating, Cheating Everywhere
Hey, remember when the Tour de France was under suspicion of being a hotbed of performance-enhancing substances? No, not in the Lance Armstrong days. Or the 1998 Festina scandal. Or the…look, there’s been a lot of doping in cycling’s biggest race – and in cycling in general. But here’s a new one: the allegations into members of French team Arkea-Samsic – which began just as this year’s Tour ended. Oh, and remember that huge FIFA scandal from 2015 (here’s a reminder)? Well, not only does the criminal proceeding against then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter remain open after almost five years, but *current* president Gianni Infantino’s running of world football is being examined by a Swiss special prosecutor as well. 
And Papa Massata Diack, son of the former head of World Athletics, has denounced the corruption and moneylending charges against himself and his dad. And then there’s the ongoing CricketSA saga, with the South African Cricket Association calling for the CSA board to stand down immediately. Good times.
Formula One: Hamilton Ties Shumacher, Honda Leaves; Electric Future?
Years after retirement from Formula 1 racing, Michael Schumacher retains the title of “statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen“, with records for everything for most fastest laps to most World Championship titles, and more. But Lewis Hamilton has just evened the score a bit, winning his 91st Grand Prix title (to tie with Schumacher) over the weekend. But Formula 1 is facing a bit of a problem, too. Honda has announced its departure from the sport at the end of 2021 – because the company has decided to invest more in what it sees as the future of motor vehicles: electric cars.
That leaves two F1 teams without an engine supplier, and has enormous ramifications up and down the starting grid. One possible solution: a merger with Formula E, the all-electric car league where fans can literally give cars a power boost. Food for thought. In the meantime, here’s a video of car influencer Alex Hirschi, better known as Supercar Blondie, learning to drive an F1 car.
And that, in short, was the week in sport.
So…did we miss anything? Why not let us know at info@capeat6sport.co.za? Or if you want to know more about what’s happening in sport, why not check out the latest issue of the Cape At 6 magazine?
