Why Becks shouldn’t go to South Africa, from the Times

“In the years when Wembley was still standing and regularly rented out for corporate shindigs, Ian Bishop, the former West Ham United and Manchester City midfield player, said that it was a source of professional embarrassment that he had never played beneath the Twin Towers. "Everybody gets to go there now," he said. "Half of my street has been. I was talking to my milkman the other day - he played there on Saturday. I'm a footballer and I'm the only one I know that hasn't."

Meeting Mandela is going the same way. In modern life, if you are famous and in possession of a passport and a grin, chances are you will one day be snapped shaking hands with the Nobel Peace Prize-winner. Since retiring from active politics in 1999, all Mandela does is meet people”.