Football is the most popular sport in South Africa, followed by rugby union and cricket. The governing body is the South African Football Association (SAFA). The country's premier league is the Primary Division, while the main cup competitions are Nedbank Cup, Telkom Knockout and MTN 8 Cup.
Video Soccer in South Africa
Histori
Football first arrived in South Africa through colonialism in the late nineteenth century, as the game was popular among the British army. From the early days of sports in South Africa to the end of apartheid, organized soccer was influenced by the racial segregation system of the country. The all-white South African Football Association (FASA), formed in 1892, while the South African South African Football Association (SAIFA), the South African Football Association (SABFA) and the South African Football Association (SACFA) were set up each in 1903, 1933 and 1936.
In 1903 SAFA re-affiliated with England The Football Association after the Second Boer War between the United Kingdom and the Boer states. There are plans to play tournaments held in Argentina, with South Africa and Fulham as the visitors, but that is not done. However, South Africa traveled to South America in 1906 to play a series of friendly matches there.
South Africa played a total of 12 matches in South America, winning 11 with 60 goals scored and only 7 conceded. Some of its rivals are Belgrano A.C., the Argentine national team, a Rosarina League combination, Estudiantes (BA) and Quilmes. The only team to beat South Africa is the Argentine Alumni 1-0 at Sociedad Sportiva stadium in Buenos Aires on June 24, although South Africa will take revenge on July 22, beating Alumni 2-0.
The players are exclusively white, civil servants, government officials, bankers and civil engineers. Seven of the 15 players were born in South Africa and 8 came from England and Scotland.
South Africa is one of four African countries that attended the 1953 FIFA congress, where all four demanded, and won, representatives of the FIFA executive committee. Thus the four countries (South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan) founded the African Football Confederation in 1956, and South African representative Fred Fell sat in the first meeting as a founding member. But it soon became clear that the South African constitution banned racially mixed teams from competitive sport and so they could only send black sides or white sides to the planned 1957 African Cup of Nations. This is unacceptable to other Confederate and South African members disqualified from the competition, but some sources say they have voluntarily resigned.
At the second CAF conference in 1958 South Africa was formally excluded from the CAF. All-white (FASA) was accepted at FIFA in the same year, but in August 1960 it was given a one-year ultimatum to fall in line with FIFA's non-discriminatory rule. On 26 September 1961 at the FIFA annual conference, the South African association was officially suspended from FIFA. Sir Stanley Rous, president of the British Football Association and FIFA champions South Africa, was elected FIFA President a few days later. Rous insisted that the sport, and FIFA in particular, should not involve himself in political issues and against fierce opposition he continues to resist attempts to expel South Africa from FIFA. The suspension was lifted in January 1963 after a visit to South Africa by Rous to investigate the state of football in the country.
Rous states that if the suspension is not revoked, football there will be stopped, perhaps to the point of no recovery. The next annual FIFA conference in October 1964 took place in Tokyo and was attended by a contingent of representatives of the larger African and Asian associations and here the suspension of South African membership was reinstated. In 1976, after the Soweto rebellion, they were officially excluded from FIFA. South Africa was suspended by FIFA from 1961 to 1992 because of the country's apartheid policy, banning the country from international competition (including the FIFA World Cup), and severely hampered the growth of domestic games.
In 1991, when the apartheid system began to be destroyed, the newly formed multi-racial South African Football Association was accepted at FIFA. On July 7, 1992, the South African national team played their first game in two decades, beating Cameroon 1-0. Since the integration of the country, he has developed the most advanced Professional Football Structure in Africa, the Premier League Soccer. South Africa qualified for the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, but failed to advance past the group stage twice. They hosted (and won) the 1996 African Nations Cup and hosted the 2010 World Cup, the first African country to do so.
Maps Soccer in South Africa
South African football league structure
Football association
The first single non-racial football association in South Africa was formed in 1991, and is named South African Football Association (SAFA). Previously, there were a number of different soccer bodies and were divided racially. These bodies, the South African Football Association, the South African Football Association, the South African Football Federation and the South African National Football Association came together to form SAFA on December 8, 1991. SAFA was granted observer status at the Confederation of African Football in South Africa. January 1992. The association was accepted into FIFA in June 1992, allowing his team to play international matches.
SAFA currently controls all the national football teams, and most of the football leagues in South Africa. The notable exceptions are Premier Soccer League and National First Division, the top two leagues in the country. The league is controlled by the National Soccer League, which also controls most of the major cup competitions.
League System
South Africa has a number of different football leagues, controlled by various organizations. The top two leagues are professional or semi-professional, and run by PSL. The lower leagues are mostly amateurs, and run by SAFA.
South Africa's First Division
The Premier Football League was founded in 1996, as a merger between the National Premier Football League and the National Football League. The Premier Division is currently the top league in South Africa, with the winner crowned as the national champion. The league consists of 16 teams, all of them professional. At the end of each season, a team is automatically relegated to the First National Division, the second team can also be relegated through the play-offs. The relegated teams were replaced by one or two teams from the First National Division.
First National Division
The First Division National is the second tier currently in South African football. The league consists of 16 teams, who are professional or semi-professional. The league is organized and controlled by the same body that runs the Premier League Soccer. The league winner is automatically promoted to Premier Soccer League at the end of the season. Other teams placed very high can also be promoted through play-offs. At the end of the season, the bottom two clubs were relegated, and were replaced by two winners of the Vodacom League play-offs.
Second Division SAFA
Second Division SAFA is the third tier of South African football, and the highest level is directly controlled by the South African Football Association. The league is played by province, and is largely made up of semi-professional teams. 144 clubs are divided into nine, 16 league teams. At the end of the season, nine league winners went into a series of play-offs to earn two promotion spots in the First Division National. The bottom two teams in each league are relegated to the SAB Regional League.
Regional League SAB
The SAB Regional League is the fourth level of South African football, and the second highest level controlled by the South African Football Association. The league consists of 832 clubs, divided into 52 leagues. Each of the 52 leagues is associated with one of the nine provincial leagues in the Vodacom League, and is usually an amateur team. Regional league winners go into a series of play-offs in their province, to earn two places in every provincial league in the Vodacom League.
LFA Football Leagues
The league under the SAB Regional League is controlled by the SAFA Local Football Association. The number of teams and leagues at this level can vary greatly depending on the region and population. The team in this league is almost always amateurish.
Youth Football League
There are several different youth soccer leagues, organized on a geographic line. The main youth competition is the U19 National League, running along the lines of local football associations.
Tertiary Football
Most universities in South Africa include football programs for men and women. Most clubs play in amateur leagues, competing against non-university teams. Exceptions are in Gauteng province, where clubs play in the Gauteng Football League.
The two biggest university football tournaments are the USSA Football tournament and the Varsity Sports Football Challenge. The USSA tournament is open to all universities, and allows separate teams for different campuses. The Varsity Sports tournament is only open for universities aligned with the University Sports Company, and allows only one club per university.
The University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Pretoria each run a professional club, Bidvest Wits and Tuks F.C., who play on campus and their campaign in South Africa's Premier Division. Maluti FET College F.C. compete in the First National Division.
School Soccer
There are also some leagues for high school and junior high school football teams, but many private schools and former models choose not to include soccer programs. The biggest school football tournament is Kay Motsepe
Trophy Competition
The Nedbank Cup is South Africa's premier football trophy, and is modeled in the English FA Cup. Cup open for teams from Premier League Football to SAB Regional League.
Telkom Knockout is the country's League Cup, and is open only to the PSL team.
MTN 8 is a Super Cup and is played between the top eight teams from PSL the previous season.
The Baymed Cup is a dead cup competition, which is open to the First National Division
National team
Senior team
The South African national team or Bafana Bafana is a South African national team and is controlled by the South African Football Association (BUFA Bafana Bafana ) SAFA). They returned to the world stage in 1992, after years of being banned by FIFA because of the apartheid system. The team has played in seven African Nations Cup tournaments, winning once. The team also played in three FIFA World Cups including 1998 in France and 2002 in South Korea and Japan. South Africa became the first African country to host the FIFA World Cup when hosting the 19th FIFA World Cup in June 2010. Siphiwe Tshabalala's team was also the first man to score in this World Cup during the opening game against Mexico. Despite beating France 2-1 in their final group stage match, they failed to advance from the first round of the tournament, becoming the first host country to do so. South Africa has hosted the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2009. The team's highest achievement was to win the African Nations Cup at home in 1996.
The men's development team consists mainly of players from the lower leagues of South Africa. The teams play matches in the COSAFA Cup and the African Nations Championships.
The women's team has played in nine African Women's Championships and has the best finish in second place, reached four times, the last in 2012. The team played at home during the African Women's Championships 2010, and finished in third place, third time South Africa to host competition.
The junior team
There are three male youth teams:
- Amaglug-glug (under 23)
- Amajita (under 20)
- Amajimbos (under 17)
and two teenage girls:
- Basetsana (under 20)
- Bantwana (under 17)
International tournament
South Africa has hosted a number of large-scale soccer tournaments. These include:
South African player abroad
While most South African players play for local clubs, some professional players play in other countries.
Here is a list of South Africans playing in foreign leagues:
Foreign players in South Africa
References
Further reading
Oshebeng Alpheus Koonyaditse (2010). South African Football Politics (1st ed.). African Perspectives Publishing. ISBN: 0-9814398-2-9.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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