By Gary AndersonDecember 31 - Brazilian Ronaldinho has been chosen as the 2013 South American Footballer

Confederations Cup which Brazil won on home soil.This is the first time that the player has won the South

in 1999.In 2002, he was an integral part of the Brazil side that won the FIFA World Cup in Japan and South

Ronaldinho missed out on making then coach Carlos Dunga's final squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South

Africa before he moved back to Brazil joining Flamengo.Ronaldinho will be hoping to play in his third

awarded by Venezuelan newspaper El Mundo in 1971, Ronaldinho becomes the 10th Brazilian to pick up the South

By Nick ButlerDecember 19 - Japan are preparing to bid for another major sporting event in the form of the 2023 Women's World Cup, it has been announced.

quadrennial basis.The 2015 version has already been awarded to Canada, while the likes of Australia, South

Africa, Poland, Sweden and Brazil have been touted as bidders for the 2019 and potentially the 2023

Japan has never hosted the FIFA Women's World Cup since it first began in 1991 but, along with South

surely would have found favour with the late Nelson Mandela, who said he not fought for democracy in South

Africa he would love to have been the world heavyweight champion.How apt that one who actually is now

By Gary AndersonDecember 16 - Glasgow 2014 today announced global power company Aggreko will provide temporary power for the duration of the Commonwealth Games.

Lake City 2002, Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012, as well as the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South

Africa.

both a British and a global sense.I was given a good indication of this with a visit to the Europe, Africa

sport ©Getty ImagesRoth, as he himself admitted, is very much a "plastic Brit", born and raised in South

By Nick Butler at Charlotte Street in LondonDecember 13 - Great Britain's Major League Baseball (MLB) star Michael Roth has strongly supported the sport's bid for inclusion at Tokyo 2020 after the possibility was re-opened last month.

month, he claimed that reintroducing the two sports in baseball mad Japan was "under discussion".The South

actually do that," the 23-year old told insidethegames during a visit to the MLB's Europe, Africa

By Paul OsborneDecember 10 - Former England Sevens captain Rob Vickerman has left the squad to pursue other opportunities, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) announced today.

three HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series events this year, having been left out of the squad in Dubai and South

Africa due to injury.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected] storiesDecember 2013: Inspired South

Africa seal World Sevens Series title with dramatic comebackDecember 2013: Tributes paid to Mandela

It was in the early seventies when I made my first visit to South Africa.

I mentioned I had just been to South Africa."Wonderful country," he enthused. "So hospitable.

Undoubtedly the [FIFA] World Cup held in South Africa in 2010 was something he was proud of because he

always wanted such a major global event in South Africa.

South Africa had been expected to bid for the 2020 Olympics before the Government announced it would

By Paul OsborneDecember 8 - An inspired South Africa have won their first home HSBC World Sevens Series

final from two years ago - which saw New Zealand secure victory in the dying seconds of the game - South

through the second half to seal the win for his side and deny the visitors a fifth successive title in South

Africa."

captain Kyle Brown completed a dramatic comeback for the home nation ©Getty ImagesThe victory leaves South

Africa just two points behind New Zealand in the HSBC World Sevens Series standings after three rounds

By Duncan Mackay in LausanneDecember 8 - The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has bowed to pressure by amending its constitution and agreeing to hold new elections which will see Abhay Chautala and Lalit Bhanot replaced as President and secretary general respectively.

populous nation out of all Olympic competitions.No country has been banned from the Olympics since South

Africa were expelled between 1968 and 1988 during the apartheid era."

OsborneDecember 7 - Emotions were running high on the opening day of the Cell C Nelson Mandela Bay South

Africa Sevens following news of the passing of the former South African President.

Inspired by a passionate home support, the South African side recorded a 100 per cent win streak to progress

Following a minutes silence for Nelson Mandela, of whom the Stadium is fittingly named after, the South

It's a real honour and a privilege to be a South African today."

memory of Mandela.All 16 competing nations met inside the Nelson Mandela Stadium to honour the former South

The South Africans will now play Portugal in the final eight following their shock 28-17 win over Wales

Bernard Lapasset and FIFA President Sepp Blatter have led sporting tributes following the death of former South

Africa following the end of apartheid.The tournament ended with the host nation beating the favourites

Africa and that our tournament came to symbolise the emergence of a new nation."

Mandela also oversaw the FIFA World Cup being awarded to South Africa for the first time in 2010.Indeed

It was one of the most moving moments I have ever experienced - for him, the World Cup in South Africa

Africa ©Getty ImagesMandela's also played a role in Cape Town's bid for the 2004 Olympic and Paralympic

It wasn't that the Springboks so memorably won it, it was the sheer fact that South Africa HOSTED it.

Africa had previously stood for.

Africa became the first African nation to stage the football World Cup.

When the country was awarded the honour, half the world said South Africa wasn't capable of staging such

He used it to accelerate the pace of change in South Africa and for those who remain in positions of

By Nick ButlerDecember 5 - Algeria, Morocco, Rwanda and Egypt will contest the semi-finals of the African Goalball Championships in Nairobi after three days of highly competitive round robin action.

Only six teams are competing in Nairobi following the late withdrawal of South Africa, but the tournament

By Nick ButlerDecember 5 -  Vladimir Putin may back a Russian bid for the Special Olympics, which would continue his nation's "decade of sport" as well as improvements in attitudes towards those with disabilities.

With the bidding process for 2019 - pitting together Australia, Germany and South Africa - already closed