In 1992, two years before the country’s first democratic election, the united South African team came into being, playing Cameroon in its first match in Durban on 9 July. One of the first gifts that democracy brought South Africa was its first truly representative national football team. Mercifully, the country has been spared the spectre of football hooliganism. Local teams, organised in a national league plus a plethora of knock-out cups, are followed with passion by paint-daubed, costumed, whistling and cheering fans. For many South Africans, the country’s proudest sporting moment came when we won the African Cup of Nations on home turf in 1996.įootball is intensely followed, and the quality of the local game keeps improving – as demonstrated by the increasing number of South African players-in-exile among the glamorous European clubs. +27 Fifa World Cup South Africa Localįootball – or soccer, as many of us call it – is the most widely played sport in South Africa, with its traditional support base in the black community. +27 82 7444 South African Football Association South African glamour football club KaizerĬhiefs play Manchester United in the final
