John Terry is about to face the soccer public for the first time since being charged with alleged racism comments when he captains Chelsea against Tottenham Hotspur in the upcoming Premier League match on Thursday.

The 31-year-old England captain was charged with a racially aggravated public order offence by the Crown Prosecution Service yesterday during an incident with Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand during a Premier League match back in October. Terry will appear at the magistrates court in West London on the 1st February where he is expected to plead not guilty to the alleged racism comments which he vehemently denies. He is sure to a receive a hostile reception at White Hart Lane, where he has been sent off for Chelsea twice in the last five seasons.

Terry’s case made the front and back pages of most of Thursday’s papers, with some supporters’ groups calling for him to be stripped of the England captaincy. However, Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas believes that Terry can cope with the stress of the case in addition to having to come out victorious against Tottenham. ”John has told me he is in the right frame of mind to play and has shown fantastic commitment to the team,” said Villas-Boas.

Tottenham have warned fans that stewards will adopt a “zero tolerance” policy towards any abuse against Terry and will be wearing headcams to record and monitor the crowds.

source: Supersport

SuperSport has officially acquired the broadcasting rights to all the 26 sports of the 2012 Olympics Games that will be hosted by the city of London. The broadcast will run for the duration of the games from the 27th July to the 12th August.

SuperSport will devote multiple TV channels on Multichoice’s DStv to show the games, including a 24-hour channel and one in high definition (HD) with live feed produced by the International Olympic Committee.

SuperSport will also produce a special Olympics weekend show, “London Calling”, that will include special guests and athletes.

SuperSport will also have four crews on location to cover the games especially to follow the teams from South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria with additional daily highlights packages.

In the meantime, SuperSport’s Olympic build-up commences with legacy programming from 16th December.

source: SuperSport

World Cup winning fly-half Jonny Wilkinson has officially retired from international rugby. The 32-year-old player of 91 caps for England as well as six Test appearances for the British and Irish Lions confirmed his decision in an announcement on his website on Monday.

Some of the post read as follows: “I would like to take this opportunity to announce my retirement from International rugby. To do so fills me with great sadness but I know that I have been blessed in so many ways to have experienced what I have with the England rugby team. I never ever believed that I would be able to give up on this dream which has driven me to live, breathe, love and embrace the game of rugby from the earliest days that I can remember…”

Wilkinson’s drop goal in the 2003 World Cup Final against Australia, saw England lift the trophy for the prestigious tournament. Wilkinson who leaves Test rugby as the second highest points scorer of all time behind the All Blacks’ Dan Carter, will continue to play for French club Toulon in the Top 14.

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Approximately 60,000 spectators came out in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire over the weekend to see Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel and seven-times GP winner Mark Webber drive their Red Bull Racing cars on the city’s streets.

Milton Keynes hosted the free event in honour of another Championship winning season where Vettel and Webber came directly from the end-of-term FIA awards’ ceremony in Delhi.

The team members, celebrating their double World Champion success, were joined by David Coulthard, who drove a Nascar, Red Bull stunt rider Chris Pfeiffer and F1 presenter Jake Humphrey.

“It’s great to be here in Milton Keynes which is where the cars are built and everyone from the factory works. It’s nice to say thank you and to see all the fans from the area,” said Sebastian Vettel commenting on the event.

source: Supersport 

Today, SA Football Association (Safa) vice-president Danny Jordaan withdrew his candidacy at the very last minute for the position of president of Cosafa just as voting was about to commence. Jordaan was due to stands against current incumbent Suketu Patel.

Jordaan was a key figure in organising the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, but his attempts to extent his profile into the global sector have been stifled, having been left in last place in voting for a place on the CAF Executive Committee. Jordaan remains a vice-president of Safa, but it is suggested that he is only using the position to try and win a place on the CAF and FIFA executives.

source: Supersport

FIA, Formula 1′s ruling body, has finalised the 20 race calendar for 2012.  The calendar was approved on Wednesday at the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) meeting in New Delhi.

The F1 Grand Prix will kick-start the season in Melbourne, Australia from the 16th to the 18th March. The U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas remains on the list as race organizers recently announced a 10-year deal with F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, ending a contract dispute that threatened to kill the race and a new $300 million track as work on the Circuit of The Americas was halted for several weeks during the dispute. The race will mark F1′s first in the United States since 2007. Despite concerns in Bahrain due to a bomb explosion outside the British embassy last weekend, the scheduled dates for the 20th to the 22nd April remain unchanged. You can view the complete list of the 2012 F1 locations on the Formula 1 website.

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IRB Seven’s Player of the Year, Cecil Afrika will lead the Blitzbokke in the Nelson Mandela Bay South Africa Sevens in Port Elizabeth on Friday. After suffering an injury at the Gold Coast Tournament and as a result missing out in Dubai, Afrika will return to play in front of his home crowd as coach Paul Treu made three changes for the match.

Afrika is an asset to the Blitzbokke, bringing some individual shine an unpredictability to a team that has on the most part, failed to be consistent. The unfortunate players to have been dropped from the squad are Renfred Dazel, Robert Ebersohn and William Small-Smith. While Ebersohn will be returning to the Cheetahs for pre-season trailing, Small-Smith, one of the few stars in Dubai has been unexpectedly and without explanation excluded.

Joining Afrika are Steven Hunt and Bernardo Botha. Botha, who missed a number of crucial tackles in Dubai, can consider himself lucky to have been included.

Springbok Sevens captain Kyle Brown said the prospects of playing at home in the new Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium will be a huge motivating factor for the team. He also added that “We did not play to our full potential in either of the previous two tournaments and will be looking to rectify the small mistakes and play to the standards that we have set for ourselves.”

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