The big question heading into the new 2025-26 Betway Premiership is who can topple Mamelodi Sundowns? Asks Mark Gleeson.
It has been the same question season after season: ‘Is there a team to challenge Mamelodi Sundowns in the new campaign?’
Over the last years, there has always been a positive answer, but it has been delivered with hope rather than certainty.
Not since the infamous COVID-19 bio-bubble season, when the last eight rounds of the league were completed behind closed doors in Johannesburg long after the scheduled end of the campaign, has there been an exciting conclusion to a Premiership campaign.
Sundowns won on the last match day of the 2019–20 season as Kaizer Chiefs faltered, squandering a 13-point lead in an extraordinary collapse.
Since then, it has all been predictable as the superiority of Sundowns has tolled in the most emphatic ways.
Two seasons ago they won by a record 23 points from runners-up Orlando Pirates in as forceful a statement of superiority as ever there was.
Last campaign, which was completed after 28 games rather than 30 after the expulsion of the Royal AM, Sundowns won by 12 points but never looked to be in any danger of being toppled from their perch, not even after Pirates beat them in a league clash in March.
So, it is then safe to suggest that it will take a Herculean effort to dislodge them in the 2025–26 season.
But for those who are desperately desirous of a change in the pecking order, there are one or two novel factors to consider.
First will be Sundowns’ lack of a break after their participation in the Club World Cup in the United States.
The trip across the Atlantic is followed quickly by the start of the new season with insufficient time for a holiday or pre-season preparation.
After a 55-match programme last season, they are in desperate need of a break. Certainly, when they got to the African Champions League final in Cairo at the start of June, they looked fatigued and were unable to produce in their most important match of the year.
There are also question marks over the work of Miguel Cardoso, the journeyman Portuguese coach who was parachuted in last December after Sundowns had embarrassingly lost to Magesi in the Carling Knockout final.
He has the same intense approach that proved the undoing of Rulani Mokwena and does not look capable to elevate Sundowns to an all-conquering status on the continent.
There is also a potential gap in their attacking capability as Themba Zwane’s effectiveness is coming to an end and with Peter Shalulile losing much of his sharpness because he is no longer playing regularly.
But are these enough factors to derail a ninth successive title … and record extending 19th overall? Probably not.
Does it then mean we face another season where the major talking point is who is going to finish second?
Potentially. The runners-up berth is nothing to scoff at, primarily because it is a route to continental football and with it even the possibility of a future Club World Cup with their incredible financial riches that it offers.
Pirates came heartbreakingly close to a berth in last season’s Champions League final but their defensive vulnerabilities proved their undoing.
Their new coach is going to have to work on this weakness, as well as make their attack more effective, if they are to challenge.
Kaizer Chiefs did end their long trophy drought with Nedbank Cup success but for the first time ever finish outside the top eight for a second successive season.
It was obvious the major investment in Nasreddine Nabi and the supporting coaches that he brought with him was yet another in a litany of poor decisions by the Motaung family.
It will be interesting to see if Nabi will last a second season, even if Chiefs have looked to strengthen their squad.
Stellenbosch have lost key players over the last season but still manage to stay competitive in a testimony to Steve Barker’s coaching acumen.
But their purchases last season, like Sanele Barns, did not prove as effective as those who left and they too will struggle to keep up their push for honours.
Newly promoted Durban City were deserving winners in the second tier but there is a definite gap in the standard between the two leagues and so new teams always struggle.
Magesi were able to stay up when Owen da Gama changed their approach after he came on board at the turn of the year, and the season before Polokwane City did much better than expected in their first season back.
But all three will be among the sides fancied to battle to survive this campaign, along with Marumo Gallants and Richards Bay.
Managerial interference remains a major detractor for many of these clubs, where the chairman often tells the coach which players to pick. Ultimately it is a proven recipe for disaster.
