The Team the Never Played
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few weeks, you are no doubt aware the FIFA world cup is currently under way in South Africa. This weekend the ABC is showing a documentary called ‘The Team that Never Played.’ The documentary looks at a group of friends who played soccer within their segregated communities. Sanctions put in place by apartheid for a long time in the past meant that people of different races, among other things, could not play with (or against) each other on the sporting field. These sanctions were also the catalyst for South Africa being banned from the world cup for some years. As the doco points out these community soccer teams may have been good enough to not only qualify for but maybe even win the 1974 or ’78 world cup Francis Green, Producer of The Team that Never Played spoke with Indigo Wood.