Football Association
The first non-racial, singular football association in South Africa was formed in 1991, and named the South African Football Association (SAFA). Previously, there had been a number of different, racially divided football bodies. These bodies, the Football Association of South Africa, the South African Soccer Association, the South African Soccer Federation and the South African National Football Association came together to form SAFA on 8 December 1991. SAFA was given observer status at the Confederation of African Football in January 1992. The association was accepted into FIFA in June 1992, allowing its teams to play international matches.
SAFA currently control all national football teams, and most football leagues in South Africa. The notable exceptions are the Premier Soccer League and the National First Division, the top two leagues in the country. The leagues are controlled by the National Soccer League, which also controls most major cup competitions.
Read more about this topic: Football In South Africa
Famous quotes containing the words football and/or association:
“People stress the violence. That’s the smallest part of it. Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it there’s a calm, a tranquility. The players accept pain. There’s a sense of order even at the end of a running play with bodies stewn everywhere. When the systems interlock, there’s a satisfaction to the game that can’t be duplicated. There’s a harmony.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)
“The spiritual kinship between Lincoln and Whitman was founded upon their Americanism, their essential Westernism. Whitman had grown up without much formal education; Lincoln had scarcely any education. One had become the notable poet of the day; one the orator of the Gettsyburg Address. It was inevitable that Whitman as a poet should turn with a feeling of kinship to Lincoln, and even without any association or contact feel that Lincoln was his.”
—Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950)