Bryant will retire next year after 20 seasons with the LA Lakers (Photo: Getty Images/Stephen Dunn)
 
Despite difficult season with LA Lakers, basketball superstar still hopes to win third consecutive gold medal before retiring
He announced his retirement from basketball last month with a poem expressing his love of the sport. But although he is one of the greatest players of all time, it appears Kobe Bryant’s star is waning in his 20th and final season, all spent with the LA Lakers. However, the two-time Olympic champion is not letting go of one final dream: to end his career at the Rio 2016 Games

24 December 2015 – South African Football Association (SAFA) President, Dr Danny Jordaan is wishing all South Africans a ‘Merry Christmas.’

“To all football fans, sponsors, the Government, Members of the Media, SAFA staff and the entire football family, I would like, on behalf of SAFA, to wish every South African a blessed and merry Christmas.

“The birth of Christ always heralds a new beginning and for most people, it marks a fresh start. This is a period of giving and sharing and I appeal to the football family to do so in good and open spirit.

© IAAF
 
The first visit to Russia by the IAAF Taskforce will take place from 10-11 January 2016.

The visit was confirmed yesterday at the first meeting between Rune Andersen, the independent chairperson of the IAAF Taskforce, and Gennady Aleshin, chairperson of the ROC Coordination Committee for the re-entrance of Russian Athletics into the IAAF family of nations.

Andersen and Aleshin, who have been respectively appointed by the IAAF and the Russian Olympic Committee to supervise the inspection and verification process, met yesterday in Brussels.

Families from communitites bordering Deodoro Olympic Park enjoyed relief from the hot Rio summer (Photo: Rio 2016/Alex Ferro)
 
Giant swimming pool alongside canoe slalom course will cater for 3,000 people; post-Games it will form part of huge recreational park

Organisers of the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games have pledged to leave a legacy to the city’s residents and on Wednesday (23 December) a key part of the ‘pre-legacy’ was delivered with the opening of the X-Park to the public.

Damiris Dantas (BRA) - Brazil v Czech Republic, 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women, Ankara (Turkey), Group Phase, 27 September 2014

RIO DE JANEIRO (2016 Rio Olympics) - It's been a very long time since Brazil's women made it to the podium of a major basketball event.

Brazil, when they were coached by Antonio Carlos Barbosa at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, defeated Korea, 84-73, in the Bronze Medal Game. There haven't been many signs of late to think the current squad has medal potential.

Coach Ellery Pinkerton (ZIM) - Algeria v Zimbabwe, Afrobasket 2015, Radès (Tunisia), Group Phase, 20 August 2015
HARARE (AfroBasket 2017) - Dead last. That was the position for Zimbabwe at AfroBasket 2015.

A team that upset South Africa in its qualifying campaign to reach this past summer's AfroBasket, which was staged in Rades, Tunisia, Zimbabwe finished 16th out of 16 teams. They were the only country not to taste victory at the event, losing all five games they played.

© AFP
When a team faces a rival over 100 places lower than them in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, the outcome is typically a foregone conclusion. So when Chad (ranked 175th in October) took on Egypt (51st) in a 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ qualifier in mid-November, the Pharaohs might have been excused thinking the three points were theirs to take.

But someone forgot to tell Les Sao, and at the end of 90 minutes the unfancied team from central Africa had created one of the bigger upsets in African World Cup history by beating the mighty North Africans 1-0, with Ezechiel Ndouasel scoring the only goal of the game midway through the second half. The shocking result, however, does not stand out as an anomaly, instead looking more like another step for Chad on their upward journey up the rankings, where they have climbed to 114th.

Highlights of 2015 included the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships and the start of the Olympic qualification process for volleyball
 
Lausanne, Switzerland, December 24, 2015 - As another year begins to draw to a close I would like to take this opportunity to look back at some of the magnificent achievements over the last 12 months. It has truly been a breath-taking year for both the sport.

Lausanne, 21 December 2015 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has a number of pending procedures involving athletes from the Russian Federation and provides the following information as to their status:

• IAAF v. ARAF & Sergey Kirdyapkin & RUSADA Hearing held in Lausanne, Switzerland on 2 & 3 December 2015
• IAAF v. ARAF & Sergey Bakulin & RUSADA Hearing held in Lausanne, Switzerland on 2 & 3 December 2015
• IAAF v. ARAF & Olga Kaniskina & RUSADA Hearing held in Lausanne, Switzerland on 2 & 3 December 2015
• IAAF v. ARAF & Valeriy Borchin & RUSADA Hearing held in Lausanne, Switzerland on 2 & 3 December 2015
  

De Villiers named ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year; du Plessis bags ICC T20I Performance of the Year award for his 56-ball 119 against the West Indies
 
Steve Smith has become the fourth Australia player and 11th player overall to win the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy after being named as the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2015.
 
Smith follows in the footsteps of Ricky Ponting (2006 and 2007), Mitchell Johnson (2009 and 2014) and Michael Clarke (2013) to lift the coveted trophy since the inception of the awards in 2004.

Patricia Apolot of Uganda who has been ranked the number one Kickboxer in the World in the Lightweight category since July of 2015 maintained her standing to finish the year (2015) as the best Lightweight Kickboxer in the world for the year. She is joined by Nigeria’s Kehinde Obareh in the top five of the world rankings, giving the sport of women kickboxing a bright outlook on the African continent.

Serbia v France, 2015 EuroBasket Women, Budapest - Budapest Sports & Events Arena (Hungary), Final, 28 June 2015
NEWCASTLE (Paul Nilsen Women’s Basketball Worldwide) – It's that time to reflect on another calendar year in the women's basketball world and so here is part one of my 2015 review.

A is AfroBasket Women, Angola and Aya Traore. They rode to the top of the podium in Cameroon behind the driving force of their veteran star, whose efforts were recognised via the MVP accolade and a subsequent short-listing for the prestigious 2015 Africa Top Sports awards.

The upheavals at FIFA continued on Monday December 21st when the governing body handed down an 8 years ban to its former chief Sepp Blatter and Senior Executive Committee member Michel Platini and while that verdict came down it was confirmed by Sexwale’s spokesman to the BBC that he had appeared in  New York for a witness deposition to a grand jury at the request of the FBI who are investigating the Worlds Soccer governing body for Mafia like activities and massive corruption which threatens to derail the very existence of the sport.

Though now in its fifth year, 2015 will go down as a year that FIFA’s Live Your Goals program achieved a new level of success. Far more young female players across a greater diversity of regions and cultures were introduced to football through the program. Over the past few weeks nations as diverse as Dominican Republic, Cameroon and Malta all conducted events, thus providing just a small sample of the program’s broad reach.

First introduced in 2011, FIFA Live Your Goals program is intended to connect more young girls and women to football, creating positive experiences in the process. The program did that over the past 12 months like never before, as Live Your Goals reached new levels of popularity across FIFA’s Member Associations.

The Uganda Cranes who are just coming off a great win at the recently held Cecafa Regional Championships in the Ethiopian Capital of Addis Ababa have been scheduled to take on Gabon and Cameroon in friendly matches On January 10th and 13th respectively according to a statement by the Ugandan FA.

Edgar Watson the Head of the Ugandan FA confirmed that the Cranes will battle Gabon on January 10th and will follow that with another Match on January 13th against the Cameroonians in the City of Jinja.

These will be warm up matches that will be used to assess the state of the team before the upcoming CHAN Tournament that is slated to take place from January 16h through February 7th in Rwanda.

MLS to kick off 2016 season on March 6 with record 10 matches
·ESPN to feature rematch of 2015 MLS Cup between Portland and Columbus
·FS1 to present Dempsey-led Seattle vs Feilhaber-led Sporting KC
·UniMas closes out the day with five-time champion LA vs. four-time champion D.C.
·TSN / RDS to showcase Canadian rivalry match between Vancouver and Montreal

Lausanne, 22 December 2015 – Following a consultation with all parties concerned, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has confirmed that it will not issue its decision in the arbitration procedure between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and 34 current and former players of Essendon FC before the week commencing 11 January 2016.
 
The procedure concerns an appeal filed at the CAS by WADA against a decision issued by the Australian Football League (AFL) Anti-Doping Tribunal dated 31 March 2015 in which 34 current and former players of Essendon FC were found not to have committed an anti-doping rule violation.

Emmanuel Quezada (DOM)

SHEFFIELD (Julio Chitunda's African Message) - Emmanuel "Manny" Quezada is dominating African basketball and no one seems to know how to stop him.

On Saturday the 30-year-old shooting guard sparked Petro de Luanda to the crown of 2015 FIBA Africa Champions Cup (ACC) for the first time since 2006 as they beat then defending champions Recreativo do Libolo 89-75 in Luanda, Angola.

LUANDA (FIBA Africa Champions Cup 2015) – Nine years on, and Petro Atletico de Luanda clinched the 2015 FIBA African Champions Cup (ACC), beating Recreativo do Libolo 89-75 on Saturday at Arena Kilamba on the outskirts of the Angolan capital Luanda. 
 
LUANDA (FIBA Africa Champions Cup 2015) – Nine years on, and Petro Atletico de Luanda clinched the 2015 FIBA African Champions Cup (ACC), beating Recreativo do Libolo 89-75 on Saturday at Arena Kilamba on the outskirts of the Angolan capital Luanda. 

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) has named Brazilian lightweight sensation Robson Donato Conceição its final Boxer of the Month for 2015. The AIBA World Boxing Championships bronze medalist, who also competed in Cycle I of AIBA Pro Boxing (APB), capped an excellent year by winning gold at the Rio Olympic Test Event at the start of December, putting himself in pole position for a Rio 2016 medal having booked his quota place with third place in Doha.

ASTANA, Kazakhstan (3x3) – The 2016 FIBA 3x3 U18 World Championships will take place in the capital city of Kazakhstan in front of the scenic Astana Opera House on 1-5 June 2016.
 
The Kazakhstan Basketball Federation (NBF) – in partnership with the city of Astana,  EXPO 2017, Astana Opera and Samruk Kazyna – will host the fifth edition of a competition, which became in 2011 the first-ever 3x3 event organised by FIBA (in Rimini, Italy).

Athletes in training session for this year’s Boxing Day sports meet
 
Officials of the National Sports Council (NSC) and Sports Ministry have confirmed they will take full operations of this year’s traditional Boxing Day Sports meet at the Siaka Steven Stadium in Freetown.
 
The hosting and running of the annual event which had been the sole responsibility of the Sierra Leone Athletics Association (SLAA) will now be run by the NSC and the Sports Ministry, according to the communication officer of the Sports Ministry, Benjamin Pratt which he said was due to the ongoing impasse within the SLAA over the elections of a new SLAA Executive.

Bangura (far right in No. 11 jersey) as he pose agent and official 
 
Chinese League One side, Dalian Yifang FC have completed the signing of Sierra Leone and AIK Solan striker, Mohamed ‘Poborsky’ Bangura on a three years deal worth over 10 million Swedish Krona (US$1,174,686.94).
 
The Swedish Allvenskan league side, AIK on Monday December 21st confirmed the player’s sale after posting a full story about the move on their website.

Sierra Leone Swimming Diving and Water Polo Association (SLSDWA) will for the first time collaborate with the Sports Writers Association of Sierra Leone (SWASAL) to host the second edition of the Dr KK Bangura Memorial Swimming championship.
 
The three days competition which will run from December 28th to 30th at the Siaka Steven Stadium swimming venue will attracts over 50 swimmers across the country to battle for supremacy in different categories.
 
General Secretary of SLSDWA, Mohamed Abdul Turay said the tournament will also be a time trails for swimmers who could possibly represent the country in next year’s Olympic Games in Rio.

© FIFA.com

The Football Federation Australia (FFA) has become the first member association (MA) of the Asian Football Confederation to adopt FIFA TMS’s Intermediary Regulations Tool (IRT).

The tool, which is now live at the FFA, is designed to assist MAs in complying with FIFA’s Regulations on Working with Intermediaries and to facilitate their ability to gather and track the required data during the period of the upcoming January transfer window.