Bakoena Sports Blog

  By Mahlomola Lefupana When the 2023/24 season started few could have predicted that Stellenbosch FC will win a domestic cup, finishing in the CAF Inter-Competition spot. The story of the Stellenbosch FC’s rise in recent years is one to marvel at and certainly one that is changing the landscape of South Africa football. Founded in 2016 after the relocation of Vasco da Gama to Stellenbosch area, they were promoted to the Premier Soccer League (PSL) in 2019. Playing their home games at the Danie Craven Stadium, where they have created a fortress – they recently went 24 match unbeaten. Stellies solidified their status as a rising football team by winning the 2023 Carling Knockout Cup beating TS Galaxy in 2023. Perhaps Stellenbosch’s biggest decision was to hire Rob Benadie as the Chief Executive Officer and Steve Barker as Head Coach. Benadie has provided leadership and foresight hardly seen in the fast-paced football environment, while Backer has provided technical expertise in ...

Mahlomola Martin Lefupana On Saturday 13 June, 2020, Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM) confirmed on their official social media page that they have “completed the sale of Bidvest Wits with all its Players”. Whilst the news of TTM acquisition of Bidvest Wits has been met with excitement from Limpopo football fans, there is a bigger question on whether it’s worth celebrating having potential 4 teams in the Premier Soccer league next season. Image: Twitter  

By Mahlomola Martin Lefupana On Thursday 19 March 2020, Premier Soccer League (PSL) chairman Dr. Irvin Khoza stood in front media in Kempton Park to confirm as predictable the suspension of the football matches until further notice. The confirmation of the suspension of the league cup matches in the PSL and Glad Africa Championship is going to be severe to the entire value chain of football economy. The league further took a decision to discontinue the 2019/20 MultiChoice Diski Challenge season with immediate effect. While a week earlier, the PSL intended to continue playing behind close door, the development of the COVID-19 and its spread in the country left them with no choice but to suspend until further notice. The virus is expected to peak in South Africa in April, raising questions and doubt over any possible resumption of the league in April or even early May. The restriction imposed as a result of COVID-19 such as movement of people, prohibition of gathering of m...

By Mahlomola Martin Lefupana Social media has been one of the most transformative, game changing tool and a leading buzzword of the last decade. Unsurprisingly, Kaizer chiefs are leading social media platforms with a combined following of 5 million people on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Pirates comes second with over 3 million on the four platforms, while Sundowns has just over 1 million. The rest of the 13 Premier Soccer League (PSL) have less than half a million each, with Supersport United with over 4 hundred thousand at fourth, while Stellenbosch fc is at the bottom with just over 50 thousand followers across the social media platforms.   The figures for Chiefs and Pirates are impressive enough to put the Soweto clubs in the top 100 of Global Football Digital Benchmark, with Chiefs at 62 and Pirates at 78. However, despite this impressive figure by Chiefs and Pirates, research has identified that there is need for clubs to invest in social media commu...

By Mahlomola Martin Lefupana Kaizer Chiefs, the most successful football club in South Africa is celebrating 50 years, a half century. The Soweto Glamour Boys is 50 years and growing stronger as a brand. Chiefs is celebrating its 50 years in possibly the strongest position in football and financial terms.  Chiefs is a club with a glorious past, founded in 1970 after the original club Kaizer XI started playing friendly across the country in 1969. The club did not take time to achieve success, they won the Life Challenge Cup in 1971. The Life Challenge Cup win in 1971 would revolutionize Chiefs culture of winning.  As one of Africa’s famous sports brand, Chiefs celebrates its half century with knowledge that their club is loved by majority of fans in South Africa and loathed by few. Chiefs has been blessed with passionate fans that are affectionately referred to as the love and peace. The club used the black and gold colours and would become synonymous with...

By Mahlomola Martin Lefupana The 2019/2020 football season is only three month old, yet, the complaints about poor match officiating is at an alarming rate. Top coaches and clubs officials in the country including multiple winning league coaches like Pitso Mosimane, Gavin Hunt, Benni Mccarthy, Owen de Game and others have decried poor match officiating in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) competitions. The match between Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs was headlined as the battle for top spot, but Pitso Mosimane was on record accusing Chiefs benefits from poor match officiating. His assertion of poor match officiating was proven right, when Chiefs was controversially awarded a goal that looked offside.  This begs the question, is the PSL ready for Video Assistant Referee (VAR)? Whilst the answer to the question might be an obvious yes, given the relative successful implementation of the VAR practice in FIFA and CAF competitions, including in Asia a...

By Lefupana Mahlomola Martin  The late 90s is always remembered as one of the greatest period of football in Sekgosese, this, primarily because Matsena Giant Killers FC (Makhema) was making all sorts of wave in Limpopo and reaching the PSL in the 1998/9 season. The late 90s also represent an era where Sekgosese had good team from across the villages, with the names of Super Silence, Mamaila Golden, Thakgalane Panthers and Sehlale Flying quickly come to mind. As the 90s became the 2000s, the football landscape was quickly changing with the fading of Mighty Giants of Sekgosese in the form of Makhema. The game needed new heroes of the early time, in the newly formed Hunger Boys, young coach, Refilwe “River” Masetla was cooking a storm, with Mosipi at the center, while under the tutelage of legendary City Machete a prodigal son in Lengwinya was rising to the top.  Cassius “Lengwinya” is Moccasin boy through and through, h...

Lefupana Mahlomola Martin The emergence of new technologies and internet has been the backbone for growth in popularity Electronic Sports (eSports) in recent years. eSports is competitive video gaming, high-level games and spectating of web based games in a competitive environment. The increased interest in eSports has now created a thriving industry with competitive professional players, leagues, tournaments, organisations and community that follows the games. The overall global eSports market is estimated to be USD 1 billion in 2019 and it expected to grow by almost 20 % in the next five years. The emergence and growth of eSports is changing the manner in which people consume sports and it is expected to transform the sporting industry. While the market value of eSports in relatively unknown in South Africa, experts suggest that the market revenue is in excess of over R150 million in 2019. These purported figures are indicative of the market that is growing and brimming...

By Mahlomola Martin Lefupana The football season has just begun, while the transfer window is still open and clubs are looking to make some late additions to their squads. The fans across the country are taking to social media, especially Twitter and Facebook to keep updated on the latest news, score updates, but there is a growing trend to bash each other of Twitter. The South Africa football fans have taken Twitter by storm, causing upheaval and often leading to football trending at number one in Twitter daily trends. This, I would argue benefit the game. In the world where competition for attention is increasingly growing, football continues to enjoy its status as the biggest and passionately followed sport characterized by high emotions and bashing of losing teams, Twitter has certainly find home in football. For majority of football supporters reading this, I would bet they quickly run to Twitter or even Facebook when their rival team loses, take for example Or...

By Mahlomola Martin Lefupana Football is  the most passionately followed and played sport, an estimated 3.5 billion globally support the game yet there is a sense that fans are being priced out of the game financially and emotionally. Football is historically known as the sport of the working class, but recent ownership of football clubs and how the game is run is increasing isolating the fans. The current football ownership structure is characterised as business, corporate, and entrepreneurial in nature. While is acknowledged that football has become a multi-billion rand business, it remains a social business in nature and therefore the fans are the cornerstone of the business. The growth of football as a business through media exposure, broadcasting rights and sponsorship investment has ensure that football has becomes a key aspects of entertainment industry and contributor to the economy . Football clubs ownership in South Africa have historically been in the ...