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

MNANGAGWA’S GOVT TRYING TO BREAK UP OPPOSITION MDC ALLIANCE, SAYS US

 In a statement, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that ZANU–PF was misusing the levers of government to silence its critics.

FILE: Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Picture: AFP

HARARE - The United States said that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government was trying to break up the opposition MDC Alliance after another six MPs were recalled from parliament.

The MDC Alliance already had a minority of seats in parliament following ZANU-PF’s win in the 2018 elections.

Former finance minister Tendai Biti was one of the high-profile opposition MPs who no longer had a seat in parliament.

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Their PDP party (People’s Democratic Party), which was part of Nelson Chamisa’s MDC Alliance, said that they were no longer members.

This appeared to be the latest in months of worsening infighting within the opposition, which the US appeared to believe was being fomented by the state.

In a statement, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that ZANU–PF was misusing the levers of government to silence its critics.

He said that COVID-19 regulations were being used selectively to ban opposition party gatherings.

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