SA Soccer timeline 1862-1974
1879
Pietermaritzburg County Football Club (Whites-only) is established.
1880
African and Indian soccer clubs are active in Durban and Johannesburg
1882 Natal Football Association (Whites-only) is founded.
1892
The Whites-only South African Football Association (later known as FASA) is formed.
1896
Indian football clubs come together to form the Transvaal Indian Football Association.
1897
1898
1902
1932
1933
1934
1935
The Transvaal Inter-Race Soccer Board is formed by Africans, Indians, and Coloureds.
1936 The Godfrey South African Challenge Cup is established
1937
1940
The Inter Race Soccer Board organises a few games between the various racially divided soccer associations.
A referee is killed by spectators at the Bantu Sports Club, Johannesburg.
1944
The African National Congress sponsors the first soccer match at the Bantu Sports Club.
1946
The Natal Inter-Race Soccer Board is established with the help of Albert Luthuli.
1947 The soccer team Moroka Swallows is founded.
1950
1951
1952
The South African Football Association (SAFA) (representing Whites) is admitted to Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA).
1953
The Durban & District African Football Association wins the Rhodes Centenary tournament in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
1955
Topper Brown, a British coach, leads Natal Africans to victory in both the Moroka-Baloyi Cup and the Natal Inter-Race Singh Cup.
1956
Minister of the Interior, T. E. Donges, articulates the first apartheid sport policy.
The South African Football Association (SAFA) changes its name to the Football Association of Southern Africa (FASA) and, due to pressure from FIFA, deletes the racist exclusionary clause from its constitution.
Stephen "Kalamazoo" Mokone and David Julius become the first Black South Africans to sign professional contracts in Europe, with Cardiff City and Sporting Lisbon respectively.
1958
The South African Bantu Football Association (SABFA) affiliates with the Football Association of Southern Africa (FASA).
Darius Dhlomo joins Stephen Mokone at Heracles in the Dutch professional league.
The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) officially recognises the Football Association of South Africa (FASA) as the sole governing body of soccer in South Africa
1959
The National Football League (NFL) is launched as the country's first entirely professional club league. It is reserved for Whites.
1959 May Orlando Stadium opens.
1960
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) expels South Africa.
South African Women's football starts.
1961
FIFA suspends the Football Association of South Africa (FASA).
FASA includes some Black players within its structure. African, Indian, and Coloured officials in the anti-apartheid South African Soccer Federation (SASF) form the anti-racist professional South African Soccer League (SASL). SABFA (the South African Bantu Football Association) launches a National Professional Soccer League (NPSL), which shuts down the following year.
1962
Eleven fans die at Jeppe Station, Johannesburg, following a Moroka Swallows -- Orlando Pirates derby at Natalspruit.
10,000 spectators in Maseru (Lesotho, then Basotholand) watch the Whites-only Germiston Callies defeat the Black Pirates (3-1).
Orlando Pirates Women's Football Club and Mother City Girls are among the first (short-lived) Black women's football teams.
1963
The FIFA executive lifts the Football Association of South Africa's (FASA) suspension. FASA announces it will send an all-White team to the 1966 World Cup, and an all-Black team to the 1970 World Cup. FIFA president Stanley Rous gets FASA temporarily reinstated in 1963, but FASA is again suspended in 1964. It is expelled from FIFA in 1976.
1964
FASA's (Football Association of South Africa) suspension is re-imposed by the FIFA Congress. The Federation leadership is persecuted, arrested, or banned.
Avalon Athletic win the SASL (South African Soccer League) double (League and Cup titles). Eric "Scara" Sono dies in a car crash at the age of 27.
The Pretoria Sundowns soccer team is revived.
1965
Moroka Swallows win their first national championship (SASL - South African Soccer League).
Leeds United winger Albert "Hurry-Hurry" Johanneson becomes the first Black South African (indeed the first Black ever) to play in an English FA Cup final (against Liverpool).
1966
The anti-racist SASL (South African Soccer League) folds due to lack of playing grounds.
1969
The Apartheid regime cancels a match between White champions Highlands Park and Orlando Pirates in Mbabane, Swaziland. The racist Football Association of South Africa's (FASA) reputation and international standing is seriously damaged as FIFA had sanctioned the match.
The South African Soccer Federation forms a six-team professional league.
1970 Coloured and Indian players are purged from African clubs.
South Africa is expelled from the Olympic Movement.
1971
Kaizer Motaung's All-Star XI is renamed Kaizer Chiefs.
1972
Bernard "Dancing Shoes" Hartze (Cape Town Spurs, Federation Professional league) sets a South African record for a single season goal-scoring average: 35 goals in 16 matches."
1972 July
The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) informs the non-racial South African Soccer Federation (SASF), led by Mr. Norman Middleton, that its application for membership arrived too late to be placed before the next congress of FIFA in August. FIFA also clarifies that the White Football Association of South Africa had not been suspended for contravening its rules but because of South African Government policy. Acceptance of FIFA would have meant expulsion of FASA (Football Association of South Africa).
1972 August
The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) executive gives special permission to the Football Association of South Africa to have overseas teams participate in the South African Games in Pretoria in 1973, asking for assurance that Blacks would be allowed to watch the games. (South Africa has friends in the FIFA executive; its position in the FIFA Congress is weak. Congress approval was not necessary for the above special permission and the matter was not mentioned at the FIFA Congress in Paris.)
1973 26 January
The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) announced, after a postal ballot of the executive committee, to allow foreign teams to go to South Africa to participate in the South African Games in March.
1973 11 February
The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) withdraws the special permission it had given to amateur football teams to take part in the South African Games to be held in Pretoria in March-April 1973, when it becomes clear that FASA is planning separate teams for different ethnic groups. FIFA had temporarily lifted suspension on the Football Association of South Africa (FASA) on the understanding that the Games would be multi-racial.
1973 25 May
The Minister of Sport and Recreation, Dr. P.G.J. Koornhof, announces in the House of Assembly that the Government had given approval "for the staging in 1974 of an open national soccer tournament in which the different South African nations can participate on a multinational basis. This is that a South African representative white team, a South African representative Coloured team, a South African representative Indian team and a South African representative Zulu, Xhosa or any other Bantu (sic) national team can compete in the tournament."
A Whites-only team beats a Blacks-only team twice in the "multi-national" South African Games (4-0; 3-1) at the Rand Stadium, Johannesburg.
1974
A Whites-only team defeats a Blacks-only team (2-0) in the Embassy Multinational Series at the Rand Stadium.
1974 3 June
Mr. Norman Middleton, president of the South African Soccer Federation, is refused a passport to attend a meeting of the International Football Federation (FINA) in Frankfurt on 11 June. He had refused to give an undertaking to the Minister of the Interior that he would do nothing to harm South African sport at the Frankfurt meeting. He said he considered the issue of a conditional passport to be "blackmail."
1974 14 October
The Minister of Sport, Dr. Piet Koornhof, says in the House of Assembly that the Government's aim is to move away from discrimination in sport, disclosing that a "champion of champions" soccer tournament would be held, probably in February: "White and non-White clubs could take part". Further, he invites the major cricketing bodies for round table talks on their problems. He confirms that a Black boxer would meet a White boxer for the South African championship. Under specific questioning, he replied that the Coloured Proteas could play against the Rugby Springboks any time.
1974 6 November
The executive committee of the International Football Federation (FIFA) rejects an Ethiopian proposal to expel South Africa. It decides that the matter can be dealt with only at the next congres
The famous English amateur soccer team 'Corinthians' tours South Africa (and again in 1903 and 1906).




