Cape Town’s top-flight hopes hanging by a thread as they navigate Premiership playoffs

Cape Town has a rich history with African soccer. From producing former Premiership champions Santos, to influential teams such as Ajax Cape Town, Cape Town Spurs and Hellenic, the city has been integral in the development of South African soccer. 

In addition to these clubs, superstar players such as Benni McCarthy, Shaun Bartlett and Quinton Fortune were produced from the streets of Cape Town. Now all this history hangs by a thread with the city’s sole representative in the South African Premiership, Cape Town City, currently in the relegation and promotion playoffs. 

Battle for survival

City finished second from bottom in the recently concluded Premiership season. By virtue of this disappointing display, the Capetonians find themselves in the playoffs. They are alongside Casric Stars, of Mpumalanga, as well as North West’s Orbit College. 

Orbit were Championship runners-up – behind promoted champions Durban City (formerly Maritzburg United). Casric ended the Championship season third. Hence both sides will be participating in the playoffs alongside City. 

In the 16-team Premiership, the team which finishes bottom of the league is automatically relegated. This season, as a result of their being expelled from the Premier Soccer League (PSL), Royal AM were the “relegated” team for the 2024/25 season. After finishing first in the second-tier, automatically promoted Durban Stars have taken Royal’s place in the top-flight. 

As the two worst-performing teams in the Premiership (behind the grounded Royal), City and SuperSport United were then left to fight it out for guaranteed survival. The team that finishes 15th on the Premiership table must take part in the playoffs. 

Change of fortunes

In the end, SuperSport edged their rivals on goal difference. Both teams ended the season on 27 points after their 28 matches, but Matsatsantsa’s goal difference of -12 was marginally better than City’s -16. The Cape side lost a staggering 15 matches on the way to finding itself in this tight corner. 

To compound Cape Town’s woes, Spurs were recently relegated from the second-tier of South African soccer – one season after their relegation from the Premiership.  

History is marginally on City’s side in the quest to preserve Cape Town’s pride. In the last 10 seasons, six Premiership sides have retained their status in the top-flight. Casric and Orbit will be drawing inspiration from the four Championship teams that shocked their Premiership counterparts over the last decade.

“A lot of people are heavily dependent on [City and Spurs] to earn a living. Besides that, they are teams that have contributed immensely to our football. Superstars come from those teams. But Cape Town City still have a chance to fight in the playoffs and I just wish them well,” former Bafana Bafana winger Siphiwe Tshabalala told Sowetan. 

Those associated with the club, including club co-owner and chairperson John Comitis, will be wondering how their fortunes changed so drastically. In the three seasons preceding the ill-fated 2024/25 campaign, City had not finished outside the top five in the Premiership.

The club is also working on building its own stadium, as Comitis told Daily Maverick in 2024. Relegation would be a major blow for these plans.   

“Ultimately, we [City] need to build our own stadium and our own home base. We’ve had a lot of support from the mayor’s office in terms of trying to achieve that,” Comitis said. 

False start

A mixed bag of results, which included four defeats in their first 10 league matches, foreshadowed City’s troubles this season. The indifferent start eventually cost coach Eric Tinkler his job in December.

Former Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs coach Muhsin Ertugral was recruited in January, but he was out by March after the situation worsened under him. Diogo Peral has been at helm on an interim basis since the sacking of Ertugral, and he is the man charged with saving City’s status as a top-flight team.

City, Casric and Orbit will play each other home and away in a mini-league format, and the team that collects the most points at the end of the playoffs will secure a spot in the 2025/26 Premiership campaign. The playoffs kicked off on 11 June, with 0-0 draw between the two second-tier teams. The competition will conclude on 28 June. DM