Africa

LaLiga, the organising body that operates the football league structure in Spain, has established a partnership with the Nigerian National Professional Football League (NPFL) as part of a move to strengthen its sporting, cultural and business ties with the African country.

The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) has signaled its intention to meet with the four national federations that were earlier this week banned from hosting and bidding for international events after having failed to meet racial transformation targets.

The South African Rugby Union’s (SARU) bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup was dealt a blow today (Monday) after Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula banned it and three other national federations from hosting and bidding for international events over failings in meeting racial transformation targets in their respective sports.

Kenya appears set to avoid sanctions from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) after its parliament finally passed a law criminalising doping.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has said the country will meet a deadline set by the World Anti-Doping agency (Wada) to improve its anti-doping measures and avoid further sanctions ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has given Kenya a one-month extension to comply with its anti-doping rules, while Ethiopia has been ordered to carry out doping tests on up to 200 athletes by November, or face further action.

Sports data provider Opta has agreed a data partnership with the International Cricket Council (ICC), while rival firm Sportradar has struck a similar deal with the South African Rugby Union (SARU).

Fiba Africa, the governing body of basketball on the continent, has rejected plans to launch a new club competition entitled the African Basketball League (ABL).

SA Rugby, the governing body of rugby union in South Africa, has announced a group post-tax profit of R16.7m (€997,000/$1.1m) for the year ending December 31, 2015 – a significant improvement on figures recorded for the previous 12 months.

South Africa’s Sports Minister, Fikile Mbalula, has fired back at claims his country paid a $10m (€9.1m) bribe to help secure hosting rights to the 2010 Fifa World Cup, adding that the allegation has cast reputational damage of “monumental proportions” on the nation.

World football’s governing body Fifa has today (Monday) banned a further three former South African Football Association (SAFA) officials, including former chief executive Leslie Sedibe, over the match-fixing scandal surrounding national team friendly games staged ahead of the country’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup.

The International Basketball Federation (Fiba) has confirmed that Zaragoza in Spain will host this year’s U17 World Championships, while the 2017 men’s and women’s U19 World Championships will be staged in Egypt and Italy, respectively.

The province of KwaZulu-Natal has called for “urgent national intervention” from the South African government in order to deliver funding for Durban’s staging of the 2022 Commonwealth Games multi-sport event.

Sanzea, a new partnership formed by the domestic governing bodies for netball in Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa, has confirmed the dates and venues for the inaugural edition of its International Super Series national team tournament.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has announced that its Diamond League series will travel to Africa for the first time later this year.

The Ethiopian Anti-Doping Agency has said nine of the country’s runners, five of them “top athletes,” are under investigation for doping, while Ethiopian-born 1500 metres champion Abeba Aregawi has been suspended after testing positive for a banned substance.