Let’s start with the big one: Hansie Cronje. One of the most beloved cricket players of all time, the South African national team captain suffered a Tiger Woodsesque fall from grace following a massive scandal. The South African hero allegedly took money to fix matches in 2000 and was subsequently issued a lifetime ban from the sport. He was even found to have tried to pressure teammates to do the same. Sadly, he died in a plane crash in Johannesburg two years later before he could repent properly (though it didn’t seem to matter – he was still voted the 11th greatest South African in 2004).
Source: Wikipedia.org
The 2011 All Africa Games hosted in Maputo, Mozambique, were meant to be a scaled-down Olympics for the continent. But the purity of the event was overshadowed by an embezzlement scandal, committed by two leading members of the National Sports Authority, to the tune of more than $88 million. The case was still being investigated as of 2013, but it looks like the sports authority will have some explaining to do.
Source: ModernGhana.com
Prior to the 2003 Rugby World Cup, the South African national rugby union (the Springboks) headed to Kamp Staaldraad for some “team bonding and training.” Unfortunately, the leaders of this camp apparently thought they were supposed to be hazing freshman fraternity brothers. The training consisted more of being forced to crawl around naked, pump up rugby balls in a freezing lake naked, sing the South African national anthem naked in a foxhole, and many other naked activities. Rumors of the goings on of the camp leaked (along with some naked pictures), and all of those involved faced job dismissal and public condemnation.
Source: Wikipedia.org
An undercover sting in 2012 unearthed a massive doping ring among middle- and long-distance Kenyan runners, particularly those training in the Rift Valley (popular among athletes due to its altitude). The plot thickened when accusations were leveled against doctors for providing the injections for athletes in return for a cut of their prize money, even pressuring them to do so in some cases. Mathew Kisorio was one of these athletes, thrust into the spotlight after failing a drug test at the Kenya Athletics Championships in 2012, and claiming that the practice of using performance-enhancing drugs was startlingly common in the region.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
This is less scandal and more just government overreach in sports, which could be considered scandalous, I suppose. Following the Nigerian national soccer team’s poor performance in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the country’s president Goodluck Jonathan tried to ban the team indefinitely from playing the sport. He backed down a few days later (mainly because FIFA told him he wasn’t really allowed to do that), but it was tense goings for a while.
Source: CNN.com
South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius was supposed to be a hero: a double amputee, he was an incredibly fast and inspiring runner who could compete both in handicapped and able-bodied competitions at the highest level. But in February 2013, he allegedly shot and killed then-girlfriend and model Reeva Steenkamp, under murky circumstances. He claimed he thought there was an intruder in his home, and mistakenly shot Steenkamp in self-defense. Though his trial is set for March, Pistorius is out on bail and has returned to training, but you can expect much less popular support for the sprinter than before.
Source: Wikipedia.org
South Africa’s Bafana Bafana match-fixing by the South Africa Football Association. Fernando Varela’s failure to abide by his four-game suspension, invalidating Cape Verde’s wins to advance towards the 2014 World Cup. Equatorial Guinea’s striker Emilio Nsue’s ineligibility and subsequent rescinding of the country’s wins, as he hadn’t lived in the country for five consecutive years. Need I go on?
Sources: PunchNG.com, PremiumTimesNG.com
Since we can never seem to get enough match fixing in sports, four Nigerian amateur football clubs’ players received lifetime bans, along with the two officials in the matches in question, for betting on their own games. The clubs themselves, Plateau United Feeders, Akurba FC, Bubayaro FC, and Police Machine FC, all received 10-year bans, as the story unfolded after two promotional play-off matches involving the teams ended in bizarre and unbelievable scores (79-0 and 67-0 – way to keep it on the DL, guys…).
Source: BBC.co.uk
