Pirates, SuperSport seek women team affiliates so they can play Caf football

Orlando Pirates, SuperSport United and Sekhukhune United are in a race against time to source affiliate women’s clubs to be eligible for the coming season’s Caf interclub competitions.

The three clubs are among the four Premier Soccer League (PSL) teams who qualified for continental football from the 2022-23 season, along with DStv Premiership champions Mamelodi Sundowns.

Sundowns and Pirates will take part in Caf’s headline Champions League, while SuperSport and Babina Noko line up in the Caf Confederation Cup.

However, Pirates, SuperSport and Sekhukhune face being disqualified as they do not have women’s teams.

Caf’s club licensing regulations require participants to have a women’s team for the 2023-24 Champions League and Confederation Cup.

South African Football Association (Safa) vice-president Linda Zwane said the three clubs don’t have teams in the Hollywoodbets Super League or Sasol League, which are presently in season. 

But Zwane said Safa expects the three teams to be compliant by the time their continental tournaments start because they had been made aware of the licensing regulations for two years.

“I think they know, because this was communicated two years ago — now they should be ready,” Zwane said.

“Whether they are ready or not, what matters is that by the time the Champions League starts they should have complied with the [Caf] directives.”

Caf’s club licensing rules state that teams that don’t have their own women’s team can go into a written agreement with another entity that operates a women’s first team.

“We hear they [the three clubs] are negotiating with existing teams. Maybe they are going that route and might not go with forming a club,” Zwane said.

“The Sasol League and Hollywoodbets Super League has started. They have to get what is existing or I don’t know the other option, because there’s no other option from what the directive says.

“What we have heard is that there are serious negotiations. Some are saying they have concluded and others are saying they are still negotiating.

“We are hopeful that by the time we reach that stage of participating in the Champions League or Confederation Cup they will have complied.”

“At this moment, it would be very difficult to speculate what is going to happen if they don’t comply, but at least no-one will say it was through short notice.” 

Sundowns and Pirates qualified for the Champions League as the first and second-placed teams in the Premiership. SuperSport reached the Confed as the third-placed league finishers.

Sekhukhune were the losing finalists in the Nedbank Cup to Pirates. Given Bucs are in the Champions League, the Limpopo team became South Africa’s second Confed qualifiers.