As importantly, it is a response to the Sunday Times' readers who have an avid appetite for sports news of all kinds, according to the publishers. Research into the readership place soccer at the top of the pecking order, since both local and international soccer is the first love of the majority of South Africans.
Having a separate sports supplement has also allowed Sunday Times to go national with the popular tabloid supplement, SoccerLife, which to date has been limited to the Gauteng area as an insert into the Metro section.
Says Mondli Makhanya, editor of The Sunday Times, "We are creating a new sport section in order to give sports its due importance, ensuring that it does not have to compete with general news and features. There will be more space for match reports, sports analysis and sports opinion".
He adds that "introducing the supplement will also enable the Sunday Times to include new features in the main body such as technology, health and dedicated celebrity news."
For lovers of sports other than soccer, Makhanya reassures readers that "the Sunday Times was not downgrading the other sports and there will more coverage of rugby, cricket and other codes than there was previously in the main body." Through the Sunday Times' relationship with the Times UK and the New York Times, readers can be assured of world-class sports coverage.
The team is headed up by editor Clinton van der Berg. Deputy editor Luke Alfred currently heads up the soccer unit and is the Sunday Times main 2010 correspondent. He will be assisted by 2006 Vodacom Sports Journalist of the Year and editor of Soccer Life 442 magazine, Rafora Rangongo, and soccer writers Kgomotso Mokoena and Carlos Amato.
Other members of the team include rugby writer Simnikiwe Xabanisa, 2005 Sports Writer of the year David Isaacson, cricketing mind Colin Bryden, and sports reporter Carly Weinberg.
Providing an inside track in the countdown to the 2010 World Cup with a regular column will be Pitso Mosimane, Bafana bafana caretaker coach. Other guest writers will be drawn from South Africa and abroad.
