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Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

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  By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen...

Zimbabwe: U.S.$400 Million Deal in Limbo

By Tinashe Kairiza Government is reconsidering the US$400 million National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) recapitalisation project to be jointly undertaken by the South African rail, port and pipeline company, Transnet and the Diaspora Infrastructure Development Group (DIDG) as it insists stakeholders have not agreed on the shareholding structure, among a myriad of unresolved issues stalling the deal, the Zimbabwe Independent can reveal. In fact, NRZ general manager Lewis Mukwada said government was yet to decide on the suitability of DIDG and Transnet to carry out the multi-million dollar project, which has attracted the interest of major banks from South Africa. A protracted due diligence exercise to determine the suitability of the consortium to roll out the multi-million dollar project is supposed to be finalised next month, enabling government to make a determination on whether or not to approve the deal. But owing to a number of thorny issues, the deadline could be missed. A...

Zimbabwe: Ncube - Mnangagwa Squandered Global Goodwill Over Mugabe Ouster

By Pamenus Tuso President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government has squandered the international and local goodwill which followed the November 2017 ouster of predecessor Robert Mugabe. This was said by MDC vice president and former industry minister Prof Welshman Ncube in a recent interview with NewZimbabwe.com. Although global powers usually condemn and act against unconstitutional power grabs, the military-chaperoned ouster of Mugabe was generally winked at by the international community. According to Ncube however, Mnangagwa and his co-putschists have wasted opportunities which came with the end of Mugabe's 37-year reign. People had a lot of goodwill for Emmerson (Mnangagwa). Lots of countries in the world were saying let us give them a chance," he said. "Some people even here were saying let's give him a chance though some of us knew that they do not merit any chance because they are the same old junta that propped up Mugabe. "(But) they h...

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