South Africa 1-0 English Premier League

January 8th, 2008 | by: Daryl |

Steven Pienaar getting a hug from Macbeth Sibaya Everton and all the other Premier League clubs trying to undermine the African Cup of Nations got a nice shiny black eye from FIFA yesterday. Everton had been trying to prevent Steven Pienaar (the little fella’ getting a big hug from Macbeth Sibaya in the image) joining up with South Africa the required 14 days before the tournaments starts (on January 20th,) arguing that Pienaar didn’t have to join until 14 days before South Africa’s first game (January 23rd.)

The extra three days would have made Pienaar available for Everton’s Carling Cup semi-final fist leg against Chelsea (which just kicked off.) Nice try David Moyes, but FIFA said “No” and Everton were told to release Pienaar immediately.

Moyes still has Nigeria’s Joseph Yobo and Ayegbeni Yakubu in his team tonight, but only because Nigeria boss Berti Vogts has allowed him to do so. Maybe Vogts felt he owed the Scotsman something after ruining his national team? But Carlos Alberto Parreira demanded Steven Pienaar’s release, so that’s what he got.

It’s easy to criticize FIFA – especially with Sepp Blatter in charge – but it’s great to see them enforcing the rules for the African Cup of Nations and not siding with the Premier League club.

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Football in Africa continues to suffer because our players who are supposed to be taking part and lifting the standard of the game fail us. They spend so much time and effort playing for their various clubs in Europe that by the time they are needed for National duty they are either injured or to exhausted because of Traveling.