I am tickled by the demeanour of two famous football coaches who have qualified their respective teams for the 2010 World Cup even with a couple of qualifiers to go; Fabio Capello for England and Milovan Rajevac for Ghana. Their contrasting mode of commenting on burning issues is quite exciting. Capello appears to be blunt and Rajevac looks like someone who doesn’t want to hurt a fly.

The other day when England completely outclassed Slovenia in a friendly and won 2-1, Capello was extremely hard on his defenders for conceding a goal in the dying minutes of the game. He considered the goal against England as loss of concentration and actually threatened to show his ruthless streak if the team did not tighten defensively. Well the team tightened up and whipped Croatia 5-1 a few days later to qualify for South Africa 2010 with more to spare.

And he has told the players in plain language that visiting wives and girl friends of players in South Africa would be controlled. ‘We are going for a competition not a holiday”, he told the press.

I am just wondering what Capello’s reaction would have been if he were in charge of the Black Stars of Ghana that took a commanding 3-1 lead against Japan in a friendly match but conceded three quick goals to lose the day.

Black Stars coach Rajevac had made drastic changes in the defence at half time when Ghana was leading 2-0, replacing regular goalkeeper Richard Kingston with untried William Amamoo. Central defender John Mensah was also substituted. The Japanese found a gap in the Stars defence and quickly reduced the deficit by one. Even though Ghana restored the two-goal margin with a third by Mathew Amoah, Japan incredibly scored thrice within ten minutes to carry the day.

Contrary to popular opinion, Coach Rajevac has exonerated the unstable goalkeeper saying the defeat was “a collective failure on the part of the tired players. Amamoo alone can’t be blamed for the loss. We lost because of a combination of factors and the goalkeeper cannot be blamed”.

The Serbian coach however admits the match had exposed some cracks in the team which need urgent attention before the Angola Nations Cup and the South Africa World Cup. I want to suggest that a reliable substitute to support Kingston is, to my mind, one of the loopholes in the Black Stars set up.

Rajevan’s observation that perhaps the players were just content with the World Cup qualification and were not motivated enough to play is, with all due respect , childish.

Does the coach mean no serious attention would be paid to the remaining qualifying matches because South Africa is already assured? His players are all professionals and they know that all such matches are taken into account in FIFA ratings.

Let’s call a spade by its name and not as a garden instrument. Fair play in sports means more than being good losers. Straight talk counts a lot.

That’s why I was highly impressed with the apologies the English FA sent to Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger for his wrongful dismissal from the touchline at Old Trafford the other day. Fair play established that the fault came from an over enthusiastic assistant referee who misled the man in the middle.

Wenger, a usually gentle figure found the defeat at the hands of Manchester United too hard to stomach and might have said a few unsavory words as to the fairness of the referee. He accused United of kicking legs instead of the ball and that perhaps incensed him to kick the empty plastic bottle that led to his red card.

It was not too pleasant an exit from Manchester and I was wishing him better luck in his next journey to the City when he fumbled once more going down rather heavily 4-2 to Manchester City. It was good Wenger did not react to Adebayor’s impolite gestures in front of Arsenal supporters when he scored for City. If it were in my part of the world, Adebayor’s gestures could have led to a big commotion in the stands possibly escalating to loss of lives. Adebayor is experienced enough to appreciate fair play and good sportsmanship and he deserved the sanction he got from the referee. He should not attempt to behave like this at the Emirates to cause security problems.

Talking about fair play brings into focus the huge debate concerning the sex status of South African world class athlete Caster Semanya. The young lady recently won 800 metres gold at the World athletics championship and suddenly the experts say they are not sure if she is a true female. This should surprise the ordinary person in the street because it is common knowledge what to look for to determine a new baby’s sex when it is born.

Well, the experts say Semanya may be a hermaphrodite and their definition of a hermaphrodite is “someone who has some or all of the primary sex characteristics of both man and woman”.

This definition needs to be explained well to us the ordinary mortals. If it means the person can both be a man and woman at the same time it means the choice is his/hers. Just like someone with a dual passport.

I think it is time the International Athletics Association came out with a definite decision on this issue before it gets out of hand.

Already, the South African Minister of Sports, the Reverend Makhenkesi Stofile has threatened “a third world war” if the athlete is given a raw deal. “Third World War”? The sports minister should please calm down for the experts have given the assurance that “Semanya can be treated in some way if she consents to it and in time she can return to competition”. With the advent of test tube babies, sex changes, and what have you, the world will better off without the threat of a third world war, so please take it easy Rev. sports minister.

Fair play will surely triumph in the end so cheer up and keep loving sports.