Cape Town – The Sport24 team will run onto the field a man down today as we bid a sad farewell to our friend and colleague Francois Krige.

Francois died on Tuesday morning after an illness that was brutal in its attack, but thankfully also very swift - and with his fanatical attention to detail and gentlemanly behaviour still intact. It was only on Friday that he was e-mailing to make sure of his sick leave due to him …

Francois started as a sport producer at News24 in 2003, and was part of the team that successfully launched Sport24 toward the end of last year. One of the few people, thus, who could lay claim to successfully moving from the print business into the online world.

This transition cannot be described as smooth, though! As an experienced journalist who worked for Sapa in the 1980s, some might have gone as far as to call him “set in his ways”. But that was part of the joy of working with Francois. You had to have a bloody good reason to make him change the way he worked! And that, in turn, made you think before just changing things on a whim …

Francois was passionate about sport and sport news, and extremely dedicated to the News24 and Sport24 products. Working alone on the night shift, it was he who set the agenda on the site for the following morning.

Francois also loved his dogs, so much so, that he was happy to spend over R750 a month on diabetes pills for his oldest four legged friend. He also asked to be buried with the dogs he himself had buried in his garden at home over the years, chirping at a braai we were invited to just after he had been diagnosed with cancer: “Might as well give them a last bone!”

He was a truly good man … Thanks, FK, for your attention to detail, for being our style conscience, and for your unmatched dedication to the cause …

We won’t miss your skinny legs in rugby shorts, but we will miss greatly “Die blerrie ou man” who became the father to our young Sport24 team.

The Sport24 team