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SAFA Women's League

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Hollywoodbets Super League
Founded2019; 5 years ago (2019)
Country South Africa
ConfederationCAF
Number of teams16
Level on pyramid1
Relegation toSasol Women’s League
International cup(s)COSAFA Women's Champions League
Current championsMamelodi Sundowns Ladies (6th title)
(2023)
Most championshipsMamelodi Sundowns Ladies
(6 titles )
TV partnersSABC1
SABC Sport
Websitesafa.net
Current: 2024 SAFA W-League

The SAFA Women's League, known as Hollywoodbets Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the top flight of women's association football in South Africa. The competition is run by the South African Football Association.[1] The league comprises 16 (originally 12) teams which won promotion from their respective Sasol Women's Provincial League divisions. The champion now earns entry into the COSAFA Women's Champions League.[2]

History

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Prior to the formation of the SAFA Women's League in 2019, a series of predecessor competitions crowned an annual national women's champion club for South Africa.

Inter-Provincial Women’s Championship (1976–1990)

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Women's football started in 1976 by founding an Inter-Provincial Championship until 1990. Natal United FC have a record of 9 championships.[3]

SAFA Women's Championship (2001-2009)

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From 2001 until 2009, a series of championships were organized by SAFA between the champion of each SAFA Region or province. In 2001-2002 this was known as the Sanlam National Women's Championship[4] and involved champions of SAFA's then-25 regions.[5] In 2005-06, the national playoffs were known as the Vodacom Women's League.[6] In 2008-09, this event was replaced by the Absa Women's League, which later became SAFA's regional league (sub-provincial).

Sasol Women’s National League (2009–2019)

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The Sasol Women's League is a provincial women's football league which was formed in 2009 when Sasol and the South African Football Association (SAFA) went into partnership for women's football in South Africa. The league runs separate leagues for each of the nine provinces, and brings their champions together to play the National Championship, and its winner is promoted to the SAFA Women's League.[7] Following the formation of the SAFA Women's League, the Sasol League became its second-tier / feeder league and no longer crowned the national champion.

SAFA Women's League (2019–present)

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Following rumors as early as 2017[8] of SAFA establishing a professional women's league, the association indeed announced the formation of the SAFA Women's National League in August 2019.[9] The new league replaced the previous inter-regional play (which had been limited only to the national championship tournament) with a national double-round-robin league of the country's top clubs. The league's first season was played in 2019-20, and began with the previous season's respective provincial champions, plus two women's affiliates of PSL clubs and the university league champion, as the initial 12 members.[10] The initial season's start date was pushed back to August 2019 in order to accommodate Banyana Banyana's participation at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.[11] In the first two seasons, there was no relegation: 2 teams were promoted to make 14 in 2020, and another 2 were promoted to make 16 in 2021, with relegation then beginning in the 2022 season.

Champions

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The list of champions and runners-up:[12]

Year Champions Runners-up
Sasol Women's League
2009 Detroit Ladies Palace Super Falcons
2010 Palace Super Falcons Detroit Ladies
2011 Palace Super Falcons Brazilians Ladies
2012 Palace Super Falcons Cape Town Roses
2013 Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies Ma-Indies Ladies
2014 Cape Town Roses Palace Super Falcons
2015 Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies Cape Town Roses
2016 Bloemfontein Celtic Ladies JVW
2017 Bloemfontein Celtic Ladies Cape Town Roses
2018 TUT Ladies Durban Ladies
2019 JVW FC Ma-Indies Ladies
SAFA Women's League
2020 Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies TUT Ladies
2021 Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies TUT Ladies
2022 Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies UWC Ladies
2023 Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies UWC Ladies
2024

Top scorer and winning coach

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Year Top scorer Goals Winning Coach
2020 South Africa Rhoda Mulaudzi 36 South Africa Jerry Tshabalala
2021 South Africa Nompumelelo Nyandeni 27 South Africa Jerry Tshabalala
South Africa Andisiwe Mgcoyi
2022 South Africa Nompumelelo Nyandeni 30 South Africa Jerry Tshabalala
2023 South Africa Sphumelele Shamase 22 South Africa Jerry Tshabalala

Most successful clubs

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Rank Club Champions Runners-up Winning Seasons Runners-up Seasons
1 Mamelodi Sundowns 6 0 2013, 2015, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
2 Palace Super Falcons 3 2 2010, 2011, 2012 2009, 2014
3 Bloemfontein Celtic 2 0 2016, 2017
4 Cape Town Roses 1 3 2014 2012, 2015, 2017
5 TUT Ladies 1 2 2018 2020, 2021
6 Detroit Ladies 1 1 2009 2010
JVW 1 1 2019 2016
8 UWC Ladies 0 2 2022, 2023
9 Ma-Indies Ladies 0 2 2013, 2019
10 Brazilians Ladies 0 1 2011
Durban Ladies 0 1 2018

Sponsorships

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During the beginning of the 2021–22 season, South African Football Association announced that they secured a naming-rights deal with Hollywoodbets.[13][14] The deal is worth about R17 million, with the winner receiving R2 million while runners up receive R1 million. They also sponsor the awards at the end of the season, giving away prize money of R50,000 to the player of the season, young player of the season, coach of the season as well as top goal score. The deal is set to be a 3-year deal.[15][16]

Broadcasting

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SABC are currently the only broadcaster for SAFA Women's League. They broadcaster matches throughout their three channels: SABC 1, SABC 3 and SABC Sport. They only broadcast two matches during the weekend.

Founding teams

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A list of the teams that took part in the inaugural SAFA Women's League:[17]

Bold entries are participating in the current season

Team Province
Thunderbirds Ladies Eastern Cape
Bloemfontein Celtics Ladies Free State
Tsunami Queens
Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies Gauteng
TUT Ladies
UJ Ladies
Durban Ladies Kwa-Zulu Natal
First Touch Limpopo
Coal City Wizards Mpumalanga
Richmond United Northern Cape
Golden Ladies North West
UWC Ladies Western Cape

References

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  1. ^ "SAFA Announce New Sponsor For National Women's Soccer League". Soccer Laduma. 16 May 2021.
  2. ^ "Hollywoodbets Super League". safa.net.
  3. ^ "Inter-Provincial Championship". RSSSF. Hans Schöggl. 29 April 2021.
  4. ^ "South Africa (Women) 2001/02". RSSSF. Hans Schöggl. 24 June 2020.
  5. ^ "SAFA/Sanlam National Women's League". South African Football Association. Archived from the original on 5 October 2003. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  6. ^ "South Africa (Women) 2005/06". RSSSF. Hans Schöggl. 3 January 2014.
  7. ^ "Sasol Women's League". safa.net.
  8. ^ "Safa planning to launch national women's league". Goal.com. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  9. ^ "SAFA National Women's League fixtures announced". South African Football Association. 19 August 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  10. ^ "National Women's Football League takes flight under stormy conditions". Daily Maverick. 23 August 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  11. ^ "Women's league in Safa limbo". Mail & Guardian. 25 January 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  12. ^ "South Africa - List of Women Champions". RSSSF. Hans Schöggl. 5 August 2021.
  13. ^ Fletcher, Robert (19 May 2021). "Hollywoodbets sponsors South Africa's National Women's Football League". iGamingBusiness. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  14. ^ "SAFA Announce New Sponsor For National Women's Soccer League". Soccer Laduma. 16 May 2021.
  15. ^ admin (19 May 2021). "Hollywoodbets Super League provides massive boost for Women's Soccer". Hollywood Foundation. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  16. ^ "SAFA launches 'game changer' Hollywoodbets Super League for women's football - SABC News - Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa's news leader". 18 May 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  17. ^ "Safa launches Women's National League | Goal.com South Africa". www.goal.com. 22 August 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
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