1 June 2007

World football governing body Fifa has sanctioned a match between an African XI and a Rest of the World team to celebrate Nelson Mandela's 89th birthday - the second time some of the biggest names in the game will play in honour of South Africa's former president.

"Retired football stars from Africa and from countries all over the world will play in the game," Fifa said after a meeting of its executive committee in Zurich on Sunday.

Zidane, Materazzi on the same side?
There have been rumours that an attempt will be made to get French star Zinedine Zidane and Italy's Marco Materazzi to play in the game, bringing an end to a personal feud which grabbed the world's attention after Zidane headbutted Materazzi in the final of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

It would be appropriate, should it happen, that their rapprochement would take place on the birthday of the world's greatest icon of reconciliation.

The match will take place in Cape Town, and is expected to coincide with a visit by Fifa head Sepp Blatter to inspect the city's progress in preparation for the 2010 World Cup.

The South African Football Association is organising the contest, but has not yet announced the venue for the game.

The first Mandela Fifa match
Fifa first sanctioned a match in honour of Mandela in 1999, the year he stepped down as South Africa's president, when a "Mandela XI" took on a Fifa World XI in the Nelson Mandela Farewell Game at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.

South African soccer great Jomo Sono - who went on to coach Bafana Bafana at the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan - coached the Mandela XI, while Englishman Roy Hodgson, then coach of Grasshoppers Zurich, took charge of Fifa's World XI.

The Mandela XI was packed with African soccer stars, including Lucas Radebe, Mark Fish, Celestine Babayaro, Samuel Osei-Kuffour, Kalusha Bwalya, Hossam Hassan, Benni McCarthy, Nwanko Kanu, Titi Camara and Shabani Nonda.

The Fifa World XI included Jorge Campos, Taribo West, Sigobert Song, Branco, Dunga, Thomas Haessler, Mustapha El-Hadji, Luis Hernandez, Viorel Molodovan, Murat Yakin, Lubomir Moravcik, Abedi Pele and Jean-Pierre Papin.

Playing in front of a crowd of 40 000 at Ellis Park, the teams went into half-time level at nil-nil.

Not long after the restart, Zambia's Kalusha Bwalya put the Mandela XI in the lead. This was short-lived, however, as German midfield dynamo Thomas Haessler replied within a minute - and 10 minutes later Slovakian striker Lubomir Moravcik netted to put his team in front.

It appeared the World XI was headed for victory, but Bwalya had other plans, grabbing his brace with the game into injury time to pull the Mandela XI level and force a 2-2 draw.

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	Nelson Mandela holds the Fifa World Cup aloft seconds after South Africa was announced as the host nation for the 2010 Football World Cup (Photo: Fifa.com)

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