This weekend football authors Simon Kuper and David Goldblatt published the kind of book reviews that warm an author's heart.
"Nobody understands the background to African soccer better than the Italian-American historian Peter Alegi," writes Kuper in the Financial Times.

The black eye on the African Cup of Nations appeared to get worse.
CAF (African soccer confederation) president Issa Hayatou has announced that Togo is to be fined $50,000 and banned from the next two editions of the tournament for dropping out of the African Cup of Nations.
This is a travesty of all-time, punishing a tiny nation with apparently no political clout among the world's governing body of football.

At the ripe old age of 38, Roger Milla emerged as one of the superstars of FIFA's 1990 World Cup in Italy. Milla scored four goals in that World Cup and celebrated each goal with a dance around the corner post. The soccer world never saw anything like it and it has changed that way football players celebrate goals ever since.

Contrast the above (and its soundtrack) with Nike's bloated ad, seasoned with the most tired forms of machismo and sexism. Here there are even a few girls and women, presented not as sex objects or football failures, but as fans and players. This one, furthermore, is actually about African soccer.

Contrast the above (and its soundtrack) with Nike's bloated ad, seasoned with the most tired forms of machismo and sexism. Here there are even a few girls and women, presented not as sex objects or football failures, but as fans and players. This one, furthermore, is actually about African soccer.

During my brief six months working in Angola between 2002 and 2003, a favorite pastime of mine when driving around Luanda was to try to identify the replica team shirts worn by ubiquitous street soccer teams playing in any available space. Brazil's canary yellow was the most popular, but the range was impressive; I saw complete teams kitted out in the reds of Manchester United, the burgundy of Portugal, the green stripes of Sporting Lisbon, the yellow/orange/black on white design of Germany, even the all whites of Real Madrid—a hopelessly futile choice in the face of the city's red dirt and grimy haze.

Finally, after an eventful January, I've got some answers to the big questions for this year of African soccer. Was Angola 2010 a success or a failure? Yes. Will the World Cup in South Africa be a success or a failure? Yes.

Let me try to explain.

I was hoping this week I could write something about the games at the African Cup of Nations, or something for fans caught up in a wave of enthusiasm for the coming World Cup.

There is a significant degree of chance in the fact that the last two top overall picks in the MLS draft, Steve Zakuani and Danny Mwanga, were both originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both players took circuitous routes to the league through the unpredictability of immigration and the strange concoction that is American college soccer.

Is Nike's new World Cup video the highest form of commercial art?

Chris Good at The Atlantic:

Nike's new ad, in keeping with that advertising tradition, is one of the highest-end pieces of commercial art you'll see, considering the production from a bona fide filmmaker and the aggregate global appeal of all the multi-national stars on screen.

According to ESPN.com, there could be an effort to silence the vuvuzelas that have been the soundtrack to this World Cup.

The horns, part of the African soccer culture and history, have gotten plenty of complaints from TV watchers across the world, but apparently have also bothered players and spectators in South Africa.

With Ivory Coast bowing out, Ghana now carries the aspirations of a whole continent. A huge responsibility on the shoulders of the Black Stars.

The first African nation to become a democracy. The first country to broach the concept of Pan Africanism under Kwame Nkrumah. The first African country to organize a football league.

The most important development in African soccer taking place this year might not be the World Cup in South Africa despite its successful staging (oh, yeah, it seems to have turned out that Cabinda is not in South Africa) argues Paul Doyle in an excellent Guardian piece on domestic African leagues, specifically, the possibility that Kenya might be leading the way with new leadership in the Kenyan Premier League:

Africa is a football-mad continent but has only ever sent three teams to the World Cup quarter-finals.

South Africa hosts Ghana for a friendly at Soccer City on Wednesday the 11 th of August 2010. A match up between Bafana Bafana and the Black Stars is maybe not what new coach Pitso Mosimane wants right now.

But Mosimane is a brave man and he tells football365 that "upcoming friendly against Ghana will provide a true indication of how far the national team has come.

WEll it seems as if there is a complication with the matter of the ticket sales for the friendly between South Africa and Ghana on 11 August at Soccer City.

According to the Safa Website : South Africa hosts Ghana at Soccer City on Wednesday the 11 th of August 2010.

Sportswear manufacturer Puma continues its relationship with African soccer by launching the "World's First Continental Football Kit" in support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Using a design seen in most of the Puma 2010 African kits, the Puma Africa Unity kit is "designed to be worn by the 12 African football national teams that [.

Five months ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the Togo team bus comes under machine gun fire right after crossing the border into Cabinda, killing and injuring players and support staff and leaving them all shaken.

This is really bad news for AFCON, tragic for Africa and such terrible planning by the FIFA and the AFCON organising committee.

With the African Nations Cup only days away and excitement building all over Africa, a terrible incident has threatened to derail the competition altogether

Togo's national team bus was machine-gunned by Angolan rebels on the Congolese border ahead of the African Cup of Nations. Reports on the extent of fatalities and injuries are still mixed, but it seems that the bus driver was fatally wounded and several players have been left in in serious condition.

The "Unity kit" will carry PUMA's Yellow ‘life' Label

German sportswear giant Puma and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have unveiled a "unified African kit" – that the continent's teams can use if their national colours clash during the African Nations Cup and World Cup finals.

Amidst all the tragedy, politics, business, and even bits of sport that have made news from the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, I've been intrigued by something conspicuous primarily in its absence: there have been virtually no stories of the juju / muti / witchcraft commonly used to exoticize the African game.

A "Football for Hope" Center Illustration from FIFA.com

We like soccer. They like soccer. There are huge, life-threatening socio-economic inequalities in the world—occasionally highlighted by the playing of soccer in places such as Angola and South Africa. Put it all together and you've got the basic logic driving the exponential worldwide growth of hundreds of sports and development organizations trying to do some good during this year of African soccer.

A "Football for Hope" Center Illustration from FIFA.com

We like soccer. They like soccer. There are huge, life-threatening socio-economic inequalities in the world—occasionally highlighted by the playing of soccer in places such as Angola and South Africa. Put it all together and you've got the basic logic driving the exponential worldwide growth of hundreds of sports and development organizations trying to do some good during this year of African soccer.

African Soccerscapes By Peter AlegiPublished by Hurst Books 2010 £12.99, ISBN: 9781849040389This slim volume, from a scholar fast developing a reputation as a leading expert on the history of African soccer, has hallmarks of a high level research monograph but transcends the genre with its impeccably researched trawl through the development of the game on the continent.

Ever since I moved to San Diego in 2007, I have heard rumors of the existence of an African Soccer League. My attempts to find it had proven unsuccessful until recently when I found a "Somali mall," chatted up the guys who run a barbershop there, and had them put me in touch with their friend who runs one of the teams.

Back in October of 2009 when Egypt was hosting the U-20 World Cup I wrote a somewhat esoteric preview of the countries in the competition oriented by one of my favorite soccer quotes (from Eric Hobsbawn): "The imagined community of millions seems more real as a team of eleven named people.

A faux Bafana Bafana jersey via the blog 'Africa is a Country'

(Note: The second half of this post is a set of suggested links and sources for context and culture around the coming World Cup; anyone interested in that more than my own thoughts on context—or anyone with suggestions of your own—should feel free to skip ahead)

I've cried twice this last year.

Didier Drogba Injured

Didier Drogba and Rio Ferdinand were taken out of the 2010 World Cup yesterday because of injuries. They are only two of the top players who will be missing this years finals is this a World Cup Curse?

The 2010 World Cup kicks off in one week at Soccer City with a match between hosts South Africa and Mexico.

The Ivory Coast Football Federation says that star striker Didier Drogba is "not at all out of the World Cup."

The Elephants captain was injured during the 2-0 win over Japan in a World Cup warm-up match in Switzerland with reports claiming that the arm had been fractured and his campaign could be over.

One of only two groups without a past champion, Group E should be a Dutch delight. Holland are the heavy favorites following an impressive qualifying campaign, but Denmark, Cameroon and Japan will look to impede their progress. Here's a closer inspection.
Holland have built a reputation as a consistently entertaining side that threatens but ultimately falls short of final victory.

I've seen a lot of soccer in a little over a week in South Africa, but I realized something strange the other day: almost all of it has been in stadiums. The trope of African soccer is the barefoot child playing on a dirt field with a rag ball—and in my previous experiences in Africa that scenario has been harder to avoid than to find.

South Africa has done a great job hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup, from the quality of their venues to their fan support.
Foreign managers are at the helm of most of the African nations, and Christopher Clarey of the New York Times reports on the imported coaches.
This is supposed to be Africa's World Cup, but Africa's teams, many on the verge of elimination, are still not entirely Africa's teams.

By TRAVIS CLARK

It came down to goal differential, but in the end, the Black Stars of Ghana hung on to bring some respect to African soccer.

In need of a win or draw to secure a berth in the World Cup's knockout stages, Ghana was unable to find gaps in a tough German side, losing 1-0 to a Mesut Ozil curler in the second half.

Chéri Samba, Le Monde Vomissant (The World Throws Up), 2004
If recent writing on the 2010 World Cup and (the idea of) Africa is leaving you feel bloated, you must read Supriya Nair's marvelous blog, Treason Stratagems & Spoils. In her July 3rd post, she calls out western media pundits for their tendency to see in each African soccer team (and, indeed, in each African or non-European or non-white player) a tidy study in "the African problem," the "problem of history", and the "problem of nationalism".

Tonight, in the second of the quarterfinal clashes in the 2010 World Cup, the Black Stars of Ghana take on South American underdogs, Uruguay at 8.30 at Soccer City in Johannesburg.

I don't think I'm exaggerating if I say that the whole continent of Africa is behind the last African team left in Africa's World Cup.

National team player, national team coach for his country's only major international triumph, co-founder of his continent's FIFA confederation, president of that confederation for 15 years, and in many ways the man who set in motion the whole chain of events that led to South Africa becoming the first African nation to host the World Cup: the late Ethiopian visionary Ydnekatchew Tessema deserves greater prominence in the annals of soccer history than he has received.

Bafana Bafana players and new coach Pitso Mosimane are confident that they are going to beat the Black Stars of Ghana on Wednesday night in the international friendly at Soccer City.

Coach Pitso Mosimane is Confident

According to football365 Mosimane insists he is in a confident mood ahead of the showdown, despite stating that the Black Stars would provide a true reflection of how well Bafana have progressed.

New head coach Pitso Mosimane has announced his Bafana Bafana squad to play Ghana's Black Stars in a friendly on 11 August at Soccer City.

Mosimane has retained captain Aaron Mokoena, who had been expected to be axed. MacBeth Sibaya also makes the cut despite Mosimane saying recently that some old Bafana players, like Sibaya, might not make it to the team.

Bafana Bafana vs the Black Stars of Ghana on 11 August at Soccer City should be a great match or will it be a slaughter? Well all the supporters want to know is what Safa is doing with the tickets prices...

It was first announced on the SAFA website at the bottom of the page, Coach Mosimane's Vision 2014

According to the Safa Website : South Africa hosts Ghana at Soccer City on Wednesday the 11 th of August 2010.

Did Sounders just buy African soccer team?

Sounders part owner Paul Allen has apparently bought African Lyon, a Tanzanian side in the country's top division, and will be watching some games there. Not sure what this means, but it seems interesting. We have a request into the team for comment.

Harper Perennial, 299 pages, 14.99, June

With a terse visceral intensity, Steve Bloomfield takes you along with him as he dives into politics and sporting life on the African continent, his adrenaline, as well as yours getting up equally to the thrill of a match or a dodgy situation in Mogadishu.

So it's easier to get dropped from your national team than it is to get a yellow card these days. And that's all to the good, in my opinion. I hate it when referees try to inject themselves into the game. I prefer it when nature, and the intensive care unit, are allowed to take their course. Seriously, just let the players play until full time rolls around, or until they're incapacitated with injuries that could have been avoided if you occasionally sent someone off.