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 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club based in the Chatsworth suburb of

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

, in the

KwaZulu-Natal province KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

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

National First Division The South African Championship, officially known as the Motsepe Foundation Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest league of South African football after the South African Premiership. Both the South African Championship and ...

club Moja United from

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; ) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa after Durban. It was named in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. The town was named in Zulu after King ...

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

. 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 Africa, South African multinational corporation and mobile telecommunications provider. Its head office is in Johannesburg. MTN is among the List of mobile network operators, largest mobile netwo ...

Nedbank Nedbank Group is a financial services group in South Africa offering wholesale and retail banking services as well as insurance, asset management, and wealth management. Nedbank Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nedbank Group. Headquarter ...

, SuperSport,

SABC The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations (Amplitude modulation, AM/Frequency modulation, FM) as well as 6 television broadcasts and 3 OTT Services to the general ...

, Ethekwini Municipality 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 unive ...

, 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 sand soccer, is a variant of association football played on a beach or some form of sand between two teams of five players each. Association football has long been played informally on ...

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 ea ...

Skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...

Touch rugby Touch rugby refers to games derived from rugby league in which players do not tackle each other but instead touch their opponents using their hands on any part of the body, clothing, or the ball. A formal, competitive variety, known as Touch ...

, Beach 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 (appro ...

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 The 2004 ABSA Cup was the 2004 season of the South African club football (soccer) knockout tournament, known at the time under its then sponsored name, the ABSA Cup. It was won by Moroka Swallows, who defeated Manning Rangers 3–1 in the fin ...

. * 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. * Nqobizizwe Que Kunene remains the clubs all time goal scorer with 78 goals scored.

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 Chatsworth Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Durban, South Africa. It is currently used mostly for Association football, soccer matches. From 2024, Durban City F.C. (2024), Durban City play their home games there, while previously it hosted ...

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 Kings Park Stadium (known as Hollywoodbets Kings Park for sponsorship reasons since 2022), colloquially known as the Shark Tank, is a stadium located in the Kings Park Sporting Precinct in Durban, South Africa. The stadium was originally built ...

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.

References

External links

Durban Stars official website (not updated since December 2008)
(archived)
Vodacom League official log results
.
National First Division official website
(archived) {{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