Category: Sport

The great Pelé, dead at 82, had some great flaws. They involved dictators and racism.

3 January 2023 By Paul Martin

By Paul Martin, Exclusive. Pelé’s legacy has two very big shadows: his willingness to serve dictators and his astonishing silence on racism. Despite his humble origins and the racism of his society, Pelé often seemed willing to consort with hardline right-wingers — a stain on his otherwise demigod status.   During the period of the military dictatorship […]

Pelé, dead at 82, was the world’s greatest footballing hero — ever. But the great Brazilian, known to many as ‘The King’, was not free from political controversy.

30 December 2022 By Paul Martin

Pele was fascinated when I asked for an interview.  He must have given thousands before mine, but this was different.  “You mean we’ll be talking directly on the Internet?” he gasped.  In 1997 that was not just a novelty, it was historic.   It was the first time any event had been internetted live.

South African rugby rocked by a sex scandal.

1 October 2022 By Paul Martin

Elton Jantjies, the 31-year-old star Springbok fly-half with 46 Tests to his credit, has issued a humiliating apology for having noisy sex with a woman in a guest house close to the rugby ground  — where he was playing a crucial match for his country.   Last week he was dropped and from the South African national […]

Halt funding after Abbas outburst, says a German politician. And also, he says, make sure full compensation is paid to victims’ families for five decades of German blunders and indifference to the 1972 Munich Olympic killings.

23 August 2022 By Paul Martin

VERSION ONE Exclusive. A senior German political figure has called on the Federal Government to halt the flow of funds to the Palestinian Authority, as a result of the “50 Holocausts” remark made by the PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Berlin last week. Ludwig Spaenle held the posts of Minister of Culture, Sports, Science and Education over […]

Brothers in arms. The Klitschko world boxing champions in conversation — as Kyiv, the Ukrainian city run by the older brother, comes under Russian attack again.

26 June 2022 By Paul Martin

First ever exclusive interview with BOTH Klitschkos in a location (“bunker”) we are not disclosing for security reasons. Vitali, the great world champ boxer now mayor of Kyiv, makes a direct appeal to the soldiers fighting Ukraine inside his country: “Go home now.  Why should you die in a foreign land just for the money […]

Putin’s favourite sport, judo, will allow Russians to compete internationally, though not under a Russian flag. And Putin remains in effective charge of the Russian Judo Federation. Yet it’s still allowed to be affiliated to the International Judo Federation.

2 March 2022 By Paul Martin

Russia’s war-mongering dictator Vladimir Putin still has his minion Arkady Rotenberg as first vice president of the Russian Judo Federation, and no action ahs been taken to ban the Russian outfit from affiliation to the IJF. Official announcement of the International Judo Federation The International Judo Federation announces that Mr. Vladimir Putin and Mr. Arkady […]

Motor-bike rider, sports fanatic, life-saver, frustrated father, Nobel Peace Prize-winner. Dead at 90, but larger than life, says Archbishop Tutu’s only son.

2 February 2022 By Paul Martin

Exclusive: By Paul Martin in Cape Town. Trevor Tutu, the only son of anti-apartheid legend Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has spoken of his dad’s amazing life – including how the future world icon took his son to an England World Cup match on the back of a scooter! In an emotional wide-ranging interview Trevor Tutu spoke […]

Kohli loses a Test series against South Africa, and ends his captaincy of the Indian Test cricket team. He was the most successful captain in Indian Test history.

15 January 2022 By Paul Martin

It’s been a huge suprise and a huge shock to the world of cricket. Yet the signs were there. There were unmistakable indications of immense frustration in his last two days as Test cricket captain. Virat Kohli seemed to have lost control of his team’s — and his own — behaviour. For example, with South […]