1996–97 Premier Soccer League

Premier Soccer League
Season	1996-97
Champions	Manning Rangers Inaugural PSL champions 1st South African title
Relegated	Michau Warriors Witbank Aces
CAF Champions League	Manning Rangers
African Cup Winners' Cup	Kaizer Chiefs (withdrew) Mamelodi Sundowns (replaced Kaizer Chiefs)
Matches played	306
Goals scored	692 (2.26 per match)
Top goalscorer	Wilfred Mugeyi Umtata Bush Bucks (22 goals)^[1]
Biggest home win	Kaizer Chiefs 7-2 Witbank Aces Kaizer Chiefs 5-0 Real Rovers
Biggest away win	Witbank Aces 1-7 Hellenic (28 May 1997)
Highest scoring	Kaizer Chiefs 7-2 Witbank Aces (9 goals)
1997-98 →

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 shocked all and sundry by comfortably finishing 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 Soweto duo were left well and truly trailing in the Durban club’s dust.

Admittedly 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 brand 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 rounding off the top eight.

Popular clubs Bloemfontein Celtic and Moroka Swallows came in 10th and 11th respectively, not quite the start to the PSL era that their fans were hoping for, while KwaZulu-Natal giants AmaZulu could only finish 14th on the 18-team log.

The first two teams to suffer the ignominy of relegation to the second tier from the PSL were Witbank Aces – who won just four games all season and finished with a measly 19 points – and Michau Warriors. Real Rovers and Vaal Professionals (36 points each) were desperately lucky to finish just a single point ahead of Warriors and avoid the dreaded chop.

The only blot on the inaugural PSL season, although through no fault of its own, would be the 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	Notes, Qualifications & Relegations
1	Manning Rangers (C)	34	23	5	6	53	28	+25	74	1998 CAF Champions League First Round¹
2	Kaizer Chiefs	34	18	12	4	56	23	+33	66	Withdrew from the 1998 African Cup Winners' Cup²
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	16	7	11	46	31	+15	56
6	Mamelodi Sundowns	34	13	11	10	35	30	+5	50	1998 African Cup Winners' Cup First Round¹ ^& 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	Relegated to the National First Division

Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points
(C) = Champions; (R) = Relegated

¹ 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 Kaizer Chiefs, who had qualified for the African Cup Winners' Cup, withdrew from the competition and were replaced by Mamelodi Sundowns.

External links

RSSSF on PSL 96/97

References

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

South African Premier Division seasons
2016–17 teams	Ajax Cape Town Baroka Bidvest Wits Bloemfontein Celtic Cape Town City Chippa United Free State Stars Golden Arrows Highlands Kaizer Chiefs Mamelodi Sundowns Maritzburg United Pirates Platinum Stars Polokwane City SuperSport United
Former teams	African Wanderers AmaZulu Bay United Benoni Premier United Black Leopards Bush Bucks Cape Town Spurs Dynamos Hellenic Manning Rangers Michau Warriors Moroka Swallows Mother City Mpumalanga Black Aces Real Rovers Ria Stars Santos Seven Stars Thanda Royal Zulu Tembisa Classic University of Pretoria Vaal Professionals Vasco da Gama
Associated competitions	Nedbank Cup Telkom Knockout MTN 8 National First Division
Seasons	1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17

Seasons in South African soccer
Premiership teams (2016–17)	Ajax Cape Town Baroka Bidvest Wits Bloemfontein Celtic Cape Town City Chippa United Free State Stars Golden Arrows Highlands Park Kaizer Chiefs Mamelodi Sundowns Maritzburg United Pirates Platinum Stars Polokwane City SuperSport United
First Division teams (2016–17)	AmaZulu Black Leopards Cape Town All Stars FC Cape Town Jomo Cosmos Milano United Magesi Mbombela United Mthatha Bucks Real Kings Royal Eagles Santos Stellenbosch Thanda Royal Zulu University of Pretoria Witbank Spurs
Premier Soccer League	1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17
National First Division	1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17
SAFA Second Division	1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17
Nedbank Cup	1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1998 1999 2000 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17
Telkom Knockout	1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
MTN 8	1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 2000 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Carling Black Label Cup	2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
National Football League	1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978
Federation Professional League	1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990
NPSL (1971-1977)	1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977
NPSL (1978-1984)	1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984
NPSL (1985-1995)	1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1984 1992 1983 1994 1995
National Soccer League (NSL)	1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995
Telkom Charity Cup	1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Vodacom Challenge	1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2011

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