The SAFA Women's League, known as

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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 competition is run by the

South African Football Association The South African Football Association (colloquially known as SAFA) is the national administrative governing body that controls the sport of football in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) and is a member of the Confederation of African Footbal ...

. 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 The CAF Women's Champions League COSAFA Qualifiers, branded as the COSAFA Women's Champions League, is an annual qualification tournament for the CAF Women's Champions League organized by COSAFA for its nations. Established in 2021, it has been ...

History

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)

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

SAFA Women's Championship (2001-2009)

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 and involved champions of SAFA's then-25 regions. In 2005-06, the national playoffs were known as the Vodacom Women's League. 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)

The

Sasol Women's League The Sasol Women's League is the second-tier South African women's association football league, sponsored by Sasol since 2013. It is semi-professional, and operates as a provincial league, with two "streams" of 8-10 teams in each of South Africa ...

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. 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)

Following rumors as early as 2017 of SAFA establishing a professional women's league, the association indeed announced the formation of the SAFA Women's National League in August 2019. 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

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clubs and the university league champion, as the initial 12 members. The initial season's start date was pushed back to August 2019 in order to accommodate Banyana Banyana's participation at the

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. 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 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

season.

Champions

A list of champions and runners-ups:

Top scorer and winning coach

Most successful clubs

Sponsorships

During the beginning of the 2021–22 season,

announced that they secured a naming-rights deal with

. 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.

Broadcasting

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 ...

are currently the only broadcaster for SAFA Women's League. They broadcast matches throughout their three channels:

SABC 1 SABC 1 is a South African public television network operated by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). It broadcasts programming in English and Nguni languages. SABC 1 was established in 1996 following the SABC's restructuring of it ...

SABC 3 SABC 3, also branded as S3, is a South African free-to-air television channel owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). Since March 2024, it carries programming in English and Afrikaans only. History On 1 January 1982, two tel ...

and

SABC Sport SABC SPORT is a South African free-to-air sports television channel owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). The channel was operating for a while on DTT before expanding on other platforms. After its expansion, the channel is ...

. They only broadcast two matches during the weekend.

Founding teams

A list of the teams that took part in the inaugural SAFA Women's League: Bold entries are participating in the current season

References

External links

Official website
{{Top level women's association football leagues around the world Sports leagues established in 2009 2009 establishments in South Africa Professional sports leagues in South Africa Women's soccer leagues in South Africa