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Robben Island FA honoured
05/07/2007 16:36 - (SA)
Johannesburg - As part of festivities marking the birthday of former South African president Nelson Mandela on July 18 Fifa will hold a ceremony to highlight the role of football among prisoners on Robben Island, the world football body said Thursday.
Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison during apartheid on Robben Island, off Cape Town. Political prisoners on the island formed their own football association, entitled Makana FA, which Fifa will make an honorary member on Mandela's 89th birthday.
The event on Robben Island will take place hours before the 90 Minutes for Mandela football match pitting star-studded teams from Africa against the rest of the world at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, Fifa announced in a release issued at the Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg.
Among the players who have confirmed their participation in the charity game are Brazilian star Pele, South African players Lucas Radebe and Mark Fish, Liberian icon George Weah and Dutch coach and former player Ruud Gullit.
South Africa's "Black Prince" Jomo Sono, who was at the press conference, said if Pele was playing he too would add his name to the line-up.
Former Robben Islander ANC businessman Tokyo Sexwale hailed the Cape Town game as a "goal against racism."
"Behind bars we defied the rules of apartheid but we obeyed the rules of Fifa," he said of Makana FA. "Whenever we played football we forgot that we were prisoners."
The Robben Island prisoners were a "strong symbol of Fifa's fight to eradicate racism and all forms of discrimination from football and sport," Fifa president Sepp Blatter said in comments made in the Fifa press release. - Sapa-dpa
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