Former World Footballer of the year, Rivaldo, is currently in South Africa training for a new season of football.

Rivaldo was World Footballer of the Year and European Footballer of the Year in 1999, a World Cup winner in 2002 and the Champions League in 2003.

Rivaldo left Sao Paulo in December and will be looking to wind down his career at the end of the year as a champion in Angola.

The almost 39-year old who is fast approaching his 40th birthday is in the country for pre-season training with Angolan club Kabuscorp, who were runners-up in the Angola league last season and with whom he signed a one-year contract last month.

The team is coached by Viktor Bondarenko, the ex-boss of Orlando Pirates, Mamelodi Sundowns, Moroka Swallows and Umtata Bush Bucks. Bondarenko led Kabuscorp SC to second place in the Girabola (Angola top league) last season.

The Brazilian World Cup winner, whose bow-legged running style and elegant passing skills made him a favourite at Barcelona and AC Milan, and his teammates have been training in Tshwane at the University of Pretoria facilities for the season that begins in March.

Source: Supersport

Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson has identified Ryan Giggs as a serious candidate to succeed him as the club manager when the day that he retires, arrives.

Ferguson, who has previously proposed  Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola as possible successors, has reportedly begun to talk about the idea of Giggs or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer taking over as manager in the future. Ferguson’s most recent plan was to continue managing until the end of the 2013-14 season, by which time he will be 72 and Giggs 41.

Ferguson believes that Giggs, who is currently in the course of gaining his coaching qualifications, would adapt very quickly to the role of manager and ensure continuity in the same way that Guardiola achieved at Barcelona.

Ferguson has apparently been talking to some fellow managers and expressing that in addition to the experience and respect that Giggs has gained over the past two decades as part of the club’s first team, he also has the acumen and perceptiveness that is required for the Manchester United managerial position.

While Giggs has recently signed a 12 month contract with the club, Ferguson hopes that players such as him and Paul Scholes will consider taking up postiions on the coaching staff when they decide to retire as Solskjaer did last year to take over as coach of Molde and led the team to the Norwegian title.  Scholes did in fact get involved in coaching United’s reserves after he retired as a player in May 2011, only to decide last month that he wished to resume his playing career.

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FIFA today released the Football World Rankings which sees Bafana Bafana dropping two places to number 58 and down to number 10 in the African rankings.

World Cup champions Spain remain at the number one spot with Germany moving past the Netherlands to take second and third place respectively. Uruguay are fourth, and England fifth with Portugal having moved past Brazil into sixth place. Italy have also moved past Croatia for eighth, while Denmark moves into the tenth spot at the expense of Argentina.

This year has seen a lot of changes in the African rankings Top 10 since the recent completion of the African Cup of Nations in Equitorial Guinea and Gabon. Going into February, South Africa took the eighth spot but have been overtaken by Zambia, Mali, Gabon Libya and Tunisia, who have all improved their positions during the Africa Cup of Nations. Senegal, Egypt and Cameroon have now all been pushed out of the top 10.

Ivory Coast have retained their position at the top of the African list of their final showing in Gabon, followed by Ghana, Algeria and the newly-crowned African champions Zambia. Mali are fifth, with Gabon, Libya, Nigeria, Tunisia and South Africa rounding out the top 10.

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Since the incident between Manchester United’s Patrice Evra and Liverpool’s Luis Suarez during half-time at Saturday’s match, Ged Grubby, Chief Executive of Show Racism the Red Card, has acknowledged the remorse in Saurez’s apology but insists that he needs to apologise to Evra in person.

The two players were involved in an altercation when Evra confronted Saurez during half-time for failing to shake his hand before the match in the tunnel at Old Trafford. This was the first time that the Uruguayan striker had come face-to-face with Evra since his eight-match ban for racially abusing the United captain last October.

Now, Liverpool is attempting to restore the club’s reputation as a result of Saurez going back on an agreement with the club and Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish to shake Evra’s hand. A day after being labelled a ‘disgrace’, Suarez issued an official statement apologising to both the club and Dalglish, who himself was compelled to say sorry for his post match interview during which he moved to defend his player, unaware of the detail of Suarez’s actions. Ian Ayre, Liverpool’s managing director was the third individual to issue an apology over the incident. “It has been made absolutely clear to Luis Suarez that his behaviour was not acceptable,” stated Ayre.

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English Premier League football club Manchester City are looking to expand its brand presence into Japan by having recruited a firm to build a local mobile website in the country.

The deal will give mobile development company, MLJ, the rights to create the club’s official mobile site for Japan’s i-Mode mobile Web. i-Mode is supported by the majority of devices in the Asian country. The site will be similar to the club’s official website, with visitors having access to club information, merchandise, scores and fixtures. There will also be an opprtunity to purchase tickets for those who are willing to travel the 5,000 miles to watch the club in action at the City of Manchester Stadium.

Ian Cafferky, chief brand & commercial officer for Manchester City, commented that “This deal marks another chapter in the club’s digital strategy to engage with our international fan base, bringing supporters as close as possible to the match-day experience, through greater interaction online and on mobile.”

Man City is emerging as a digital pioneer in the world of Premier Football having been the first English team to agree a content agreement with YouTube, where it became one of the earliest professional channels. Man City also experimented with twitter, displaying fans’ tweets on the big screen in the stadium.

The club’s on-field activities are stronger than ever after being taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008.

Source: The Next Web

Staurt Pearce & Fabio Capello

FA Chairman David Bernstein has confirmed that Stuart Pearce will be the interim England manager for the upcoming friendly match against the Netherlands while it searches for a permanent successor to Fabio Capello. Pearce once served as Capello’s assistant.

Capello officially resigned on Wednesday as a result of disagreements over former England captain John Terry, as a result of his pending racism trial, leaving the team without a manager four months before the start of the Euro 2012. England Under-21 and British Olympic team coach Pearce will lead the team when they host the Netherlands at Wembley on 29th February as they continue preparations for the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine. Bernstein said of Pearce that “He knows the players very well. He just said if you would like me to do it, I would like to do it.”

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp, who was recently cleared of tax evasion charges, is the favourite to take over the position however he was recently reported as saying that with his focus on the performance of Spurs, he hadn’t even thought about it. The Football Association has confirmed that a short-list will be confirmed tomorrow.

There have been calls to avoid appointing another foreign coach but Bernstein said that there is no way to guarantee that the next man will definitely be British. He stated that the FA had a preference for a British candidate but insisted the priority is to appoint the best person.

Source: Daily Mail

Tottenham Hotspur manager, Harry Redknapp, has been cleared on Wednesday by a court in London of tax evasion charges after a long investigation into allegations of financial corruption in British football.

Redknapp, who is tipped to be the next England team manager, was charged with cheating the public revenue in relation to payments totalling $295, 000 made to his bank account in Monaco during his time as manager of Portsmouth.

After hearing the verdict, Redknapp who had to fight back tears of relief, said that the strain of the investigation had been “horrendous”.

Since being cleared, Redknapp applauded the Tottenham directors and supporters for backing both him and former Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric. ”I have to thank the fans, especially, the fans of Tottenham. The other night, the Wigan game, was the most moving I’ve ever felt for me personally to have them singing my name throughout the game,” he said.

The verdict clears the way for Redknapp to replace Fabio Capello as manager of the England team when the Euro 2012 tournament comes to an end this summer when the Italian is due to step down. Capello’s imminent replacement comes after clashes between him and the Football Association who recently stripped John Derry of his English captaincy.

The tax authorities have defended their actions stating that, ”We’ve no regrets about pursuing this case because it was vitally important that the facts were put before the jury for their consideration,” said Chris Martin, Assistant Director of Criminal Investigations at HM Revenue and Customs.

Source: Reuters