R31 mil to spend on World Cup travel, tickets, suites, random exhibitions and some legacy soccer game.
-Olympic and paralympic team - always chronically under funded.
-SA Women's hockey team - crowd funding for the Olympics.
-SA Men's hockey team - self funded
-SA women's football team Banyana Banyana - continued payment issues
-National Netball team - heavily dependent on sponsors
But yeah, a good few tens of millions to spend on "exhibitions and stands".
In 2010, a 14-year-old Rodri watched from a summer camp in the USA as his home nation Spain won the World Cup for the first time.
In 2026, he returned to the U.S. to lift it himself 🏆
🚨 Roy Keane on Nico Williams disallowed goal against Argentina:
“I’ve just seen the biggest robbery of this World Cup. The ball comes into the box, nobody touches anybody, everyone goes up for it, then one Argentina player starts shouting. The next thing you know, two defenders are on the floor appealing,
Nico Williams has scored, and Emiliano Martinez … who wasn’t even touched… is somehow lying there as well asking for a foul.
The referee blows immediately. No VAR review. No replay. No check to see if there was actually any contact. Just disallowed. Apparently if enough Argentina players fall over at the same time, that’s now considered conclusive evidence.
If we’re being honest, Paredes shouldn’t even still be on the pitch after some of the tackles he’s made today. Yet somehow the only thing the referee managed to spot instantly was an invisible foul.”
Imagine captaining your country to the World Cup, while winning Player of the Tournament. All that added to winning the Euros and Nations League, both in which you won Player of the Tournament in...PLUS you have a Ballon d'Or in the bag, as well as scoring a Champions League winner as you secured a treble for your side, who you then pushed onto four league titles in a row.
Rodri is fucking unreal. How can anyone possibly argue against him? His CV is unrivalled.
Thank you for everything.
Dropping one of the best World Cup campaigns at the age of 39.
Greatest sportsman of all time.
Greatest player in history of the sport.