South African football teams have long endured a litany of unsavoury tactics across the African continent, from hostile environments and dubious refereeing to blatant time-wasting, crowd intimidation and administrative sabotage. Clubs such as Betway Premiership champions Orlando Pirates and Confederation of African Football (CAF) champions Mamelodi Sundowns, not forgetting the national team, Bafana Bafana, frequently emerge as victims of systemic gamesmanship.
The question looms large: should the CAF intervene decisively, or must South African sides descend into the same muddy waters to survive?
Consider the 2013 CAF Champions League encounter between Orlando Pirates and TP Mazembe in Lubumbashi. Pirates faced a cauldron of hostility. Reports detailed controversial penalty decisions favouring the home side and a red card for captain Lucky Lekgwathi after a 50/50 challenge. Even South African cameras were ejected from the stadium. Mazembe’s tactics included delaying kick-offs and leveraging a fortress atmosphere that bordered on intimidation. Pirates advanced despite the 1-0 defeat in the away leg but the experience left scars.
The pattern persists. In the 2026 CAF Champions League final against Morocco’s AS FAR, Mamelodi Sundowns secured a 1-0 first-leg win at Loftus Versfeld via Aubrey Modiba’s free kick. Yet preparation for the return leg in Rabat descended into chaos. Sundowns’ departure to Morocco was delayed for unexplained reasons when their charter flight was denied a landing permit by Moroccan authorities despite prior application.
The team spent hours stranded aboard the plane at OR Tambo International Airport before returning to their hotel, losing valuable recovery and training time. Many viewed this as deliberate mind games by AS FAR, especially after Sundowns had assisted the Moroccans with landing arrangements for the first leg in South Africa. Such administrative hurdles exemplify how off-field tactics unsettle better-prepared opponents.
Bafana Bafana have faced similar issues in qualifiers against sides such as Congo, with questionable officiating, time-wasting and hostile receptions disrupting rhythm. South African teams, often perceived as better resourced and more professional, are targeted with non-footballing levellers.
These incidents reveal a deeper malaise in African football governance. CAF has issued statements on fair play, yet enforcement lags. Referees often show home-team bias, while hosts manipulate conditions through infrastructure disparities and bureaucracy. South Africa’s economic edge in the PSL breeds resentment, punishing success with extra obstacles.
CAF must intervene. Stronger measures are non-negotiable: independent referee panels for key matches, mandatory neutral venues in contentious ties, harsh penalties for orchestrated delays or fan violence and transparent VAR protocols with oversight. CAF President Patrice Motsepe’s leadership has injected investment but credibility demands addressing these inequities. African football cannot flourish if excellence is undermined.
Yet, despite the relentless gamesmanship, Sundowns triumphed. They held their nerve in a dramatic 1-1 draw in Rabat, securing a 2-1 aggregate victory to claim the 2026 CAF Champions League title — their second continental crown.
This triumph in the face of adversity underscores the resilience of South African football and proves that quality can overcome dirty tricks when discipline prevails.
Perpetual victimhood, however, solves nothing. South African clubs should avoid outright dirty play such as match-fixing or violence. However, they must adapt, invest in sports psychologists for hostile environments, apply diplomatic pressure via the South African Football Association and PSL for security and scheduling guarantees and prepare tactically. This might mean faster substitutions, proactive complaints and data-driven exposure of bias. Strategic resilience beats unethical retaliation.
Football should reward skill, not survival of the shrewdest. South African teams offer professionalism and infrastructure that uplift the continent. Allowing gamesmanship to thrive diminishes all of that.
CAF owes African football’s integrity a level playing field. If not, South African sides have every right to fight fire with calculated, rules-based fire. Excellence must prevail. Only then can the beautiful game truly shine across Africa.
Lelo Mzaca is an award-winning multitalented journalist, copywriter and presenter of The Big Breakfast Show on Radio 2000, with an overwhelming passion for sport, lifestyle, music, arts and culture.
Football should reward skill, not survival of the shrewdest. South African teams offer professionalism and infrastructure that uplift the continent. Allowing gamesmanship to thrive diminishes all of that. CAF owes African football’s integrity a level playing field. If not, South African sides have every right to fight fire with calculated, rules-based fire