“We’re breeding white elephants. There are herds of them”, a leading stadium consultant has told Play the Game. Ian Nuttall, a consultant at stadiumbusiness.com, was referring to the underused mega-stadiums that are the legacies of events such as the FIFA World Cup, the European Championships, and the Commonwealth Games.

By donating expensive stadia, China is trying to increase its influence in third world countries.

The Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) won a 2010 Common Ground Award for its innovative community and peace building programmes with youth in the Mathare slums, with young refugees in the Kakuma Camp in northwest Kenya, with demobilized child soldiers in Rumbek in southern Sudan and with youth in other poor urban and rural communities in East Africa and Botswana.

Danny Jordaan, head of the 2010 World Cup Local Organising Committee described the world’s largest sporting event as a ‘rebranding of South Africa’.

New report from the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR) exposes corruption and mismanagement in professional African soccer leagues.

A new study entitled “Using Football for HIV/AIDS Prevention in Africa”, has found that football-based programmes aiming to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS has proved to be very successful.

The French journal Politique Africaine, has dedicated their latest issue to the World Cup in South Africa, featuring articles looking into political issues before, during and after the world’s largest football event has hit Africa.

Knowledge bank: This paper, by Dr. Gary Baines, looks into the way in which the hosting of 2010 World Cup matches has effected South African city Port Elizabeth. It also examines the potential legacy for the city, a legacy viewed as “likely to exacerbate existing economic disparities, contribute social instability and increase tensions within the ruling party at local level as it struggles to defuse dashed expectations amongst its constituency.”