Premier Soccer League
Season1996–97
ChampionsManning Rangers
Inaugural PSL champions

1st South African title
RelegatedMichau Warriors
Witbank Aces
CAF Champions LeagueManning Rangers
African Cup Winners' CupKaizer Chiefs (withdrew)
Mamelodi Sundowns (replaced Kaizer Chiefs)
Matches played306
Goals scored692 (2.26 per match)
Top goalscorerWilfred Mugeyi
Umtata Bush Bucks
(22 goals)[1]
Biggest home winKaizer Chiefs 7–2 Witbank Aces
Kaizer Chiefs 5-0 Real Rovers
Biggest away winWitbank Aces 1–7 Hellenic
(28 May 1997)
Highest scoringKaizer Chiefs 7–2 Witbank Aces (9 goals)

The 1996–97 Premier Soccer League, known as the 1996–97 Castle Premiership for sponsorship purposes, was the first season of the newly established top-flight professional football league in South Africa. The league was an 18-team competition established in 1996 by Irvin Khoza, Kaizer Motaung, Raymond Hack and Jomo Sono in conjunction with the South African Football Association and it would run parallel to the European football calendar.

Season summary

Manning Rangers comfortably finished top of the log to win the first PSL title ahead of several more fancied opponents. The Mighty Maulers dominated to such an extent that they finished eight points clear of second-placed Kaizer Chiefs and a further two ahead of Orlando Pirates.

The Amakhosi had a more potent attack and a better defensive record than Rangers, and they lost fewer games, but their propensity to draw matches that they should have won cost them the trophy. It handed Gordon Igesund the first of four PSL titles that he would win in the competition and got South Africa's new top-flight league off to a noteworthy start.

Umtata Bush Bucks and Hellenic completed the top five, with Mamelodi Sundowns in sixth, Jomo Cosmos in seventh and Cape Town Spurs in eighth.

Popular clubs Bloemfontein Celtic and Moroka Swallows came in 10th and 11th respectively, while KwaZulu-Natal giants AmaZulu finished 14th on the 18-team log.

The first two teams to be relegated to the second tier from the PSL were Witbank Aces – who won just four games all season and finished with 19 points – and Michau Warriors. Real Rovers and Vaal Professionals (36 points each) finished a single point ahead of Warriors and avoided the demotion.

There was an abandoned game between Bloemfontein Celtic and Kaizer Chiefs on Sunday 16 February 1997. The game in Bloemfontein was called off in the 40th minute, with the home side trailing Chiefs 2-0, due to crowd trouble. Kaizer Chiefs were given the result along with 3 log points due to the trouble with the crowd being instigated by the Celtic fans. This was a rather surprising turn of events as the Celtic fans, while having a reputation for being extremely vocal and passionate, are not known to be unruly.

Final league table

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 Manning Rangers (C) 34 23 5 6 53 28 +25 74 1998 CAF Champions League First Round[lower-alpha 1]
2 Kaizer Chiefs 34 18 12 4 56 23 +33 66 Withdrew from the 1998 African Cup Winners' Cup[lower-alpha 2]
3 Orlando Pirates 34 18 10 6 43 27 +16 64
4 Umtata Bush Bucks 34 16 9 9 45 29 +16 57
5 Hellenic 34 15 8 11 46 31 +15 53
6 Mamelodi Sundowns 34 13 11 10 35 30 +5 50 1998 African Cup Winners' Cup first round[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2]
7 Jomo Cosmos 34 11 16 7 32 27 +5 49
8 Cape Town Spurs 34 14 6 14 40 45 5 48
9 SuperSport United 34 10 16 8 40 35 +5 46
10 Bloemfontein Celtic 34 13 5 16 38 39 1 44
11 Moroka Swallows 34 11 10 13 33 35 2 43
12 Wits University 34 11 8 15 27 31 4 41
13 Qwa Qwa Stars 34 10 8 16 39 49 10 38
14 AmaZulu 34 9 10 15 34 46 12 37
15 Vaal Professionals 34 10 6 18 38 49 11 36
16 Real Rovers 34 8 12 14 35 46 11 36
17 Michau Warriors (R) 34 10 5 19 32 50 18 35 Relegated to the National First Division
18 Witbank Aces (R) 34 4 7 23 26 72 46 19
Source: rsssf.com
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:
  1. 1 2 Due to the PSL following a different football calendar to the rest of Africa, which runs over a single calendar year and not the international August–May calendar followed by the PSL, Manning Rangers & Mamelodi Sundowns would only be eligible to enter the 1998 editions of the respective CAF competitions they qualified for.
  2. 1 2 Kaizer Chiefs, who had qualified for the African Cup Winners' Cup, withdrew from the competition and were replaced by Mamelodi Sundowns.

See also

References

  1. Worldfootball.net. "Premier Soccer League: Top scorers' list". worldfootball.net.
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