Soccer-Mbeki criticises South African attitude to sport

JOHANNESBURG, June 9 (Reuters) South Africa President Thabo Mbeki accused his country today of ''trivialising sport'' which in turn had led to the national soccer team's recent dismal performances.

South Africa, who hosts the 2010 World Cup, failed to qualify for this year's tournament in Germany and were then humiliatred in the African Nations Cup in Egypt.

''We should, at last, stop trivialising sport, very wrongly treating it as frivolous and unimportant,'' Mbeki said in a weekly newsletter posted on the Web site of his African National Congress party.

Mbeki, who publicly rebuked the South African side after they lost all three of their first-round matches during the African Nations Cup in January, said their performance reflected problems in amateur and school sport in the country.

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