Durban Stars is a semi-professional

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club based in the Chatsworth suburb of

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

, in the

KwaZulu-Natal province KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locat ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The club was founded in July 2003, when the businessman Phindani Nene acquired the Castle League franchise of the

National First Division The National First Division (NFD), officially known as the Motsepe Foundation Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest league of South African club association football, football after the South African Premier Division. Both t ...

club Moja United from

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; Zulu: umGungundlovu) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu ...

, and thereby established his new club Durban Stars FC, directly into the second level of South African football. The club played at that level from 2003–09, before being relegated to

Vodacom League The ABC Motsepe League, previously known as the Vodacom League between 1998 and 2012, was founded in 1998 as the current Second Division and the overall third tier of South African football. The competition is regulated by SAFA, and until 2012 ...

. At the subsequent 2009–10 season, the club got relegated to the fourth level, known as the SAB Regional League, after having received no less than 14 "disciplinary 0–2 defeats" from SAFA. Presumably, the disciplinary irregularity arose from the fact that the team had fielded ineligible players during almost half of the matches in the season. To avoid the relegation for the fourth level, the club decided to buy the Castle League franchise of Globe City in Vodacom League. In the 2010–11 season, the newly reinforced Durban Stars won the KwaZulu-Natal division of Vodacom League. In June 2011, they participated in the Vodacom League playoffs, competing for a promotion back to the National First Division.

Durban Stars company and affiliations

The company Durban Stars is based in the La-Lucia suburb of Durban, and handles events and marketing across South Africa. Durban Stars Sports and Marketing is a subdivision of Durban Stars, that specialises in Sports Development, Sports Events, Branding, Digital Advertising and Sports Sponsorship and Sales. Among the customers of the services provided by Durban Stars are:

MTN Group MTN Group Limited, formerly M-Cell, is a South African multinational mobile telecommunications company, operating in many African and Asian countries. Its head office is in Johannesburg. , MTN recorded 280 million subscribers, making it the ...

, Nedbank, SuperSport, SABC,

Ethekwini Municipality eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality created in 2000, that includes the city of Durban, South Africa and surrounding towns. eThekwini is one of the 11 districts of KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The majo ...

and KwaZulu-Natal provincial government. As of 2008, the annual events organised by Durban Stars include:

Varsity Cup Varsity Cup is the collective name for four South African rugby union competitions involving the top rugby playing universities in the country. It was launched in 2008, with eight teams participating in the Varsity Cup competition and each univers ...

, Mini Soccer World Cup, MTN Top 32 Schools Soccer Tournament, and Durban Summer Splash. The company also opted to establish the Durban Stars Sporting Club as a subdivision, to develop sporting clubs within several sports disciplines. As of 2008, they have created professional teams within

Beach soccer Beach soccer, also known as beach football, sand football or beasal, is a variant of association football played on a beach or some form of sand. Whilst football has been played informally on beaches, the introduction of ''beach soccer'' was an a ...

BMX BMX, an abbreviation for bicycle motocross or bike motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes, either in competitive BMX racing or freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation. History BMX began during the earl ...

Skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport originating in the United States that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a ...

, Touch rugby,

Beach cricket Backyard cricket, Bat ball, street cricket, beach cricket, corridor cricket, garden cricket, box cricket (if the ground is short) referred to as gully cricket in the Indian subcontinent, is an informal ''ad hoc'' variant of the game of cricket, ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

and Indigenous Games.

Club records and best achievements

* Won the silver medal of the National First Division in 2004–05. * Reached the 1/8-Finals (round 16) of the

2004 ABSA cup 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

. * Highest scored point average, 2.33 points per match, was achieved when the club won the KwaZulu-Natal province of Vodacom League in 2010–11.

Historical League results

* 2003–04 (NFD) – 3rd (in Coastal stream) * 2004–05 (NFD) – 2nd * 2005–06 (NFD) – 10th * 2006–07 (NFD) – 7th * 2007–08 (NFD) – 6th (in Coastal stream) * 2008–09 (NFD) – 8th (in Coastal stream => Relegated) * 2009–10 (VL) – 16th (in Kwazulu-Natal) * 2010–11 (VL) – 1st (in Kwazulu-Natal)

Team squad in 2010–11

The list below highlight the team's most valuable players as of May 2011, according to the South African soccer site KickOff. Head Coach: Ramadhan Nsanzurwimo
1st Assistant: Alex Zondi

Stadium

According to available match statistics from 2007–09, the preferred home venue for the team while playing in the

, was Chatsworth Stadium with a capacity of 22,000. After the relegation to

in June 2009, the team moved their home venue for the next season to Kings Park Stadium with a capacity of 55,000. In the 2010–11 season, the team could however only afford to play at much smaller venues in Durban. The preferred home venue in this season, was the

SJ Smith Stadium SJ Smith Stadium is a multi-use stadium at the Lamontville district, in the Chatsworth, Durban, Chatsworth suburb of Durban, situated in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. It is currently used mostly for football (soccer), football matc ...

, being situated in the Lamontville district, at the Chatsworth suburb in Durban.

External links

Durban Stars official website (not updated since December 2008)Vodacom League official log resultsNational First Division official website

References

{{South African soccer seasons Association football clubs established in 2003 SAFA Second Division clubs Soccer clubs in KwaZulu-Natal Soccer clubs in Durban 2003 establishments in South Africa