- 1996Bafana Bafana win AFCON at home
- 2010Africa's first FIFA World Cup
- 2022Banyana Banyana win WAFCON
- 1937Orlando Pirates founded in Orlando
- 1992South Africa readmitted to FIFA
South African Football, Explained
Guides to the league, the national teams, the grassroots game and football on film
Soweto Derby History: Kaizer Chiefs vs Orlando Pirates
The Soweto Derby holds unparalleled significance in South African football.
PSL Promotion and Relegation
How AFCON Qualifying Works
Best African Football Documentaries
Becoming a Referee in South Africa
PSL & Local
All stories
MTN8, Nedbank Cup, Carling Knockout
The MTN8, Nedbank Cup and Carling Knockout are three separate knockout competitions in the South African football season.
Bafana & Banyana
All storiesHow AFCON Qualifying Works
Bafana Bafana reach the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) by finishing high enough in a CAF-run qualifying group played home and away, while host nations qualify automatically.
Banyana Banyana History
Banyana Banyana, South Africa's women's national football team, went from a first official match in 1993 to continental champions in 2022 and the knockout stage of a World Cup in 2023.
Why Bafana Bafana?
"Bafana Bafana" is isiZulu for "the boys, the boys", often loosely translated as "our boys", and it is the nickname of South Africa's men's national football team.
Grassroots
All stories- Grassroots
Becoming a Referee in South Africa
The path to becoming a football referee in South Africa starts with joining the Local Football Association where you live, then moving up through SAFA's graded refereeing levels, each with an examination and a fitness test.
GrassrootsSAFA Coaching Licences Explained
SAFA's coaching ladder has five steps, from the grassroots D Licence to the Professional Licence.
GrassrootsGetting Scouted in South Africa
Young South African players are most likely to be noticed through the structures scouts already watch: school football, SAFA club and league football, and the youth systems of professional clubs.
GrassrootsFutsal vs Five-a-Side
Futsal is a formal FIFA code with fixed laws, played on a hard court with a smaller, low-bounce ball.
GrassrootsSoccer vs Football
"Soccer" and "football" mean the same game in South African English, and both are used every day.
On Film
All storiesBest African Football Documentaries
The best African football documentaries use the game as a way in to the social, political and cultural history around it.
South African Football Films
South African football on screen is a small but real genre, and its most verifiable titles cluster around three stories: prison resistance on Robben Island, a township child's dream of playing for…
Football on Robben Island
Robben Island inmates turned soccer into an organised act of resistance when they founded the Makana Football Association in 1966.
The 2010 festival showed documentaries in community halls from Worcester to Victoria West. See the original film programme.
History
All stories
This site began in 2010 as Soccer Cinema, a travelling festival of football documentaries. Visit the festival archive.