Bakoena Sports Blog

By Mahlomola Martin Lefupana The future of professional football at a Premier Soccer League (PSL) level looks bright, full of innovation and dynamism in approach. South African football has in the recent past enjoyed serious growth in revenue from broadcast right and sponsorship and has been rated in the top 20 money league by Deloitte in the past 10 years. The broadcast and sponsorship revenue has been particularly crucial to the league financial stability, helping grow direct and indirect business associated with football.  It is believed that professional football in South Africa has had direct, indirect and induced contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimated to be almost 2 %. This come through direct and indirect businesses and employment in the sectors such as financial serves, tourism, events management, media, marketing, merchandising distribution and infrastructure development. Since the signing of a mega broadcast deal with Supersport International

By Mahlomola Martin Lefupana The story of Moroka Swallows’s fall from the grace is all too familiar to some of us. Swallows is a giant of South Africa football, they have a history, heritage and trophy cabinet to be proud of. Their fall from the grace is not a surprise and should not surprise other fans who might be following football partially.  It is recorded that Swallows is the first football club to turn professional in South Africa, by registering as a private entity. This was indeed commendable at the time and true to the ground-breaking innovation, other teams followed the same model of professionalising their clubs. Some of the illustrious and decorated names to have played in the famous colours of maroon and white of the Dube Birds as Swallows is known include luminaries such as Joel “Ace” Mnini, Andries “Chaka chaka” Mpondo, Thomas “Who is Fooling Who” Hlongwane, Owen “Rubber Doll” da Gama, William “Khurra” Makhura, Andries “Six Mabone” Maseko, Frederick ‘Cong

By Mahlomola Martin Lefupana When the history of the South Africa’s senior men team is written, it will always remembers class of 96 as heroes for winning the African Cup of Nations (AFCON), subsequently qualifying for 98 and 2002 World Cups. History will however regard those that came after as failure. The history of Bafana Bafana since readmissions into international football is chartered with failure, temporary glory, mismanagement, fighting and all sort of shenanigans.  While the period between 2004 to 2018 can be regarded as total disaster and failure to fulfil earlier promises, there is a case to be made for several players as unfortunate to be part of the failure. Let’s explore the legacy of Bafana in this period to make a case for a generation of players who could have achieved more if the circumstances were different.   The failure to qualify for 2006 world cup  In the early phase of building the national team after readmission into international football,