Soccer 1

Soccer has always been popular in South Africa and goes back as far as the early days of settlement when it was played by members of the garrison at the Cape. The first serious attempts to establish soccer officially were made in 1881 at Port Elizabeth but unfortunately the person who was the mainstay of these efforts died and his death put an end to the attempt. However in 1882 Natal established a football association comprising 5 clubs.

The game took an early hold on the Diamond Fields of the Transvaal and in 1892 Sir Donald Currie provided the first major boost to South African Soccer when he included it in the annual Currie Cup Tournament.  After that the sport enjoyed widespread popularity in schools and it was only much later that Rugby began to gain greater prominence.

Various Football associations were established early on. Griqualand West Football Association in 1890; The Western Province Football Association in 1896 and The Transvaal Football Association in 1899.

In 1897 the Corinthians team from Britain became the first soccer team to visit South Africa. This gave a huge spur to the soccer in South Africa. The first team from South Africa to travel abroad was the The Orange Free State Bantu Football Club who toured England and in 1906 the all white South African soccer team travelled abroad and played the Argentinians. Only in 1959 did professional soccer come into being in South Africa and since then has gone from strength to strength.

In 1962, due to the apartheid policy of the South African Government FIFA banned South Africa from the world soccer stage and only in 1992 was the ban lifted, culminating in South Africa being the first African country to host the FIFA World Cup. So after a long and stormy journey the 19th FIFA world cup 2010 was hosted in a number of exciting venues around South Africa.