The new Betway Premiership season is currently under way. Will we see a fresh challenger for league glory? By Mark Gleeson.
A new season is upon us, bringing the race, this time with the potential of Kaizer Chiefs adding their hat to the ring and making it a three-way chase.
That, at least, is what their legion of fans and many impartial observers will be hoping for.
Last season’s contest between Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates injected a whole new, and much-needed, lease of life into the league and boosted interest after the drudgery of Sundowns’ past dominance.
Their record-breaking run of eight successive titles was brought to a close as Pirates took advantage of Sundowns’ stumbles at the end of the campaign and held their nerve to take a first title since 2012.
Sundowns are going to want their crown back and now that they have achieved their goal of a second African Champions League title, they will likely have a more balanced approach.
Pirates, in contrast, will now want to turn their attention to winning the continental title.
Not only is it worth US $6 million (approximately R100 million) to the victor but also ensures entry to the 2029 Club World Cup where the payments from FIFA are stratospheric and will take the club up another level in terms of their budget and the players and coaches they
can afford.
It is certainly a top priority now for Pirates to try and make the next Club World Cup, as Sundowns have already done.
Pirates and Sundowns are again the South African representatives in the Champions League field while Chiefs will be competing in the African Confederation Cup on account of their third-place finish last season.
It was a much-improved campaign from AmaKhosi, despite the early- season firing of Nasreddine Nabi and the gamble to stick with his inexperienced assistants as interim coaches for the rest of the season.
Khalil Ben Youssef and Cedric Kaze have moved on, elsewhere in the league, and a new-look Chiefs are hoping to restore the lustre lost over the last decade.
It is now more than a decade since the country’s most popular club were league champions, and they have been hamstrung by a series of disastrous management decisions on coaches and players.
Chiefs, for all their earning potential and multitude of corporate sponsors, patently do not have the financial resources of Sundowns and Pirates and therefore are third to every purchase.
But they have also not helped themselves with an antiquated approach towards the purchase of players that sees them miss out on all the good deals.
A three-way tussle for the title would allow South African football to continue an upwards trajectory that has come from the national team qualifying for the World Cup and Sundowns taking the top club prize on the continent.
OUTSIDER BET
There have not been many breakout teams in recent seasons. Stellenbosch finished third in successive campaigns before slipping to ninth last year.
Sekhukhune United have recorded finishes of fourth, fourth and fifth over the last three seasons, while Durban City won the Nedbank Cup in their first top-flight campaign. But it is difficult to see any real outside bets for this coming campaign.
NEW BOYS
The Village Boys, as Kruger United are nicknamed, secured promotion after winning the Motsepe Foundation Championship.
Originally from Bushbuckridge, the club has swiftly risen through the ranks after purchasing a status in the third-tier ABC Motsepe Foundation.
They secured promotion to the second tier after one season and needed only two campaigns in the MFC to win a place in the top flight to the delight of co-owners Basil Khoza and Bongani Wait.
The side are coached by Abram Mongoya and have ex-Zimbabwe international Elasto Kapowezha as sporting director.
Kruger built their promotion-winning squad around players with PSL experience, with the likes of Wandisile Letlabika, Ntsako Makhubela, Tercious Malepe and Celimpilo Ngema helping them win a place with the big boys.
BE CAREFUL OF CRASHING
Stellenbosch handed veteran coach Gavin Hunt a fresh contract after he took them from relegation danger to ninth place but then got rid of 13 players in a massive clean-out, which has come to emphasise Hunt’s modus operandi over the years. He warms to a player one day but quickly goes cold on him the next, and his last tenure at SuperSport United saw an extraordinary churn of players.
Consistency is a cornerstone of success, and too many changes can lead to disaster. Stellenbosch will be hoping Hunt finds the right recipe because they are making a fundamental change to the club ethos.
POTENTIAL BEST PLAYER
Sundowns’ Colombian striker Brayan Leon would surely have taken the Golden Boot award had he arrived earlier than last season’s January transfer window.
The 25-year-old Colombian had some horror misses in the first leg of the African Champions League final but 15 goals in 16 starts was a phenomenal return for his first months in the country and he is expected to only get better.
Sundowns have bought some South American duds in recent years so this so this appears to have been another recruitment success.
