South African rugby slipped deeper into chaos on Wednesday as at least four of its seven top rugby bosses quit their posts, but union supremo Brian van Rooyen refused to heed a call to step down.
Four other members of the South African Rugby Union's (SARU) management structure including its deputy president Andre Markgraaff hung up their boots following a call by South Africa's sports minister and the country's umbrella sporting federation on Tuesday.
"The recent call by the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee [SASCOC] for the management committee of SA Rugby to step down has been largely heeded," SASCOC chairman Moss Mashishi said.
"Essentially the only person who has not submitted his resignation is Brian van Rooyen," Mashishi said at a press conference in Johannesburg. By late Wednesday, resignations for only four of the seven administrators had been confirmed.
Months of wrangling and power struggles boiled to the surface over the weekend when van Rooyen's deputy Markgraaff accused him of mismanagement, presenting a "dossier of irregularities" to the local media.
Markgraaff accused Van Rooyen of clinching contracts for a new series between northern-hemisphere teams and South Africa without informing his own management team.
"Commission from the contracts will apparently run into millions of rands and questions are being asked about who received commission from the negotiations," the Afrikaans Sunday paper Rapport said.
Van Rooyen hit back the same day by gleaning the support of at least nine of rugby's 14 provinces, which backed him at a press conference.
The government and SASCOC stepped in on Monday, calling for van Rooyen, Markgraaff and the rest of rugby's top management's heads.
But van Rooyen -- who had until yesterday afternoon to tender his resignation -- has given no indication that he would do so.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ￥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ￥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
Batting great Virat Kohli yesterday announced his immediate retirement from Test cricket, just days before India name their squad for a tour to England. Kohli, who scored 9,230 runs in 123 matches at an average of 46.85, posted his decision on Instagram five days after India captain Rohit Sharma called time on his own Test career. Since making his debut in 2011, Kohli struck 30 hundreds and 31 fifties with a highest score of 254 not out, mainly batting at number four in the order. “It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket,” the
RSS