SAFA Women's League
Football league
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The SAFA Women's League, known as Hollywoodbets Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the top flight of women's association football in South Africa. The competition is run by the South African Football Association.[1] The league comprises 16 (originally 12) teams which won promotion from their respective Sasol Women's Provincial League divisions. The champion now earns entry into the COSAFA Women's Champions League.[2]
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| Founded | 2019 |
|---|---|
| Country |  South Africa |
| Confederation | CAF |
| Number of clubs | 16 |
| Level on pyramid | 1 |
| Relegation to | Sasol Women’s League |
| International cup(s) | COSAFA Women's Champions League CAF Women's Champions League |
| Current champions | Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies (8th title) (2025) |
| Most championships | Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies (8 titles) |
| Top scorer | Nompumelelo Nyandeni (87 goals) |
| Broadcaster(s) | SABC1 SABC Sport |
| Website | safa.net |
| Current: 2026 SAFA W-League | |
History
Prior to the formation of the SAFA Women's League in 2019, a series of predecessor competitions crowned an annual national women's champion club for South Africa.
Inter-Provincial Women’s Championship (1976–1990)
Women's football started in 1976 by founding an Inter-Provincial Championship until 1990. Natal United FC have a record of 9 championships.[3]
SAFA Women's Championship (2001-2009)
From 2001 until 2009, a series of championships were organized by SAFA between the champion of each SAFA Region or province. In 2001-2002 this was known as the Sanlam National Women's Championship[4] and involved champions of SAFA's then-25 regions.[5] In 2005-06, the national playoffs were known as the Vodacom Women's League.[6] In 2008-09, this event was replaced by the Absa Women's League, which later became SAFA's regional league (sub-provincial).
Sasol Women’s National League (2009–2019)
The Sasol Women's League is a provincial women's football league which was formed in 2009 when Sasol and the South African Football Association (SAFA) went into partnership for women's football in South Africa. The league runs separate leagues for each of the nine provinces, and brings their champions together to play the National Championship, and its winner is promoted to the SAFA Women's League.[7] Following the formation of the SAFA Women's League, the Sasol League became its second-tier / feeder league and no longer crowned the national champion.
SAFA Women's League (2019–present)
Following rumors as early as 2017[8] of SAFA establishing a professional women's league, the association indeed announced the formation of the SAFA Women's National League in August 2019.[9] The new league replaced the previous inter-regional play (which had been limited only to the national championship tournament) with a national double-round-robin league of the country's top clubs. The league's first season was played in 2019-20, and began with the previous season's respective provincial champions, plus two women's affiliates of PSL clubs and the university league champion, as the initial 12 members.[10] The initial season's start date was pushed back to August 2019 in order to accommodate Banyana Banyana's participation at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.[11] In the first two seasons, there was no relegation: 2 teams were promoted to make 14 in 2020, and another 2 were promoted to make 16 in 2021, with relegation then beginning in the 2022 season.
Champions
A list of champions and runners-ups:[12]
| Year | Champions | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|
| Sasol Women's League | ||
| 2009 | Detroit Ladies | Palace Super Falcons |
| 2010 | Palace Super Falcons | Detroit Ladies |
| 2011 | Palace Super Falcons | Brazilians Ladies |
| 2012 | Palace Super Falcons | Cape Town Roses |
| 2013 | Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies | Ma-Indies Ladies |
| 2014 | Cape Town Roses | Palace Super Falcons |
| 2015 | Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies | Cape Town Roses |
| 2016 | Bloemfontein Celtic Ladies | JVW |
| 2017 | Bloemfontein Celtic Ladies | Cape Town Roses |
| 2018 | TUT Ladies | Durban Ladies |
| 2019 | JVW FC | Ma-Indies Ladies |
| SAFA Women's League | ||
| 2020 | Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies | TUT Ladies |
| 2021 | Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies | TUT Ladies |
| 2022 | Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies | UWC Ladies |
| 2023 | Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies | UWC Ladies |
| 2024 | Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies | UWC Ladies |
| 2025[13] | Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies | JVW |
Top scorer and winning coach
| Year | Top scorer | Goals | Winning Coach |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Rhoda Mulaudzi |
36 | Jerry Tshabalala |
| Hildah Magaia | |||
| 2021 | Nompumelelo Nyandeni |
27 | |
| Andisiwe Mgcoyi | |||
| 2022 | Nompumelelo Nyandeni |
30 | |
| 2023 | Sphumelele Shamase |
22 | |
| 2024 |  Boitumelo Rabale |
17 | |
| 2025 | Leandra Smeda |
22 | Godfrey Sapula |
Most successful clubs
| Rank | Club | Champions | Runners-up | Winning seasons | Runners-up seasons |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mamelodi Sundowns | 8 | 0 | 2013, 2015, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 | |
| 2 | Palace Super Falcons | 3 | 2 | 2010, 2011, 2012 | 2009, 2014 |
| 3 | Bloemfontein Celtic | 2 | 0 | 2016, 2017 | |
| 4 | Cape Town Roses | 1 | 3 | 2014 | 2012, 2015, 2017 |
| 5 | TUT Ladies | 1 | 2 | 2018 | 2020, 2021 |
| JVW | 1 | 2 | 2019 | 2016, 2025 | |
| 7 | Detroit Ladies | 1 | 1 | 2009 | 2010 |
| 8 | UWC Ladies | 0 | 3 | 2022, 2023, 2024 | |
| 9 | Ma-Indies Ladies | 0 | 2 | 2013, 2019 | |
| 10 | Brazilians Ladies | 0 | 1 | 2011 | |
| Durban Ladies | 0 | 1 | 2018 |
League records
- Most titles: 8 – Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies
- Biggest League win: 0–13 [14]– Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies vs Thunderbirds Ladies (2024)
- Most goals scored in a season: 126 – Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies (2022)
- Most goals conceded in a season: 129 – Thunderbirds Ladies (2024)
- Most points in a season: 82 – Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies (2022)
Sponsorships
During the beginning of the 2021–22 season, South African Football Association announced that they secured a naming-rights deal with Hollywoodbets.[15][16] The deal is worth about R17 million, with the winner receiving R2 million while runners up receive R1 million. They also sponsor the awards at the end of the season, giving away prize money of R50,000 to the player of the season, young player of the season, coach of the season as well as top goal score. The deal was set to be a 3-year deal.[17][18] SAFA and Hollywoodbets renewed the deal in May 2025.[19]
Broadcasting
SABC are currently the only broadcaster for SAFA Women's League. They broadcast matches throughout their three channels: SABC 1, SABC 3 and SABC Sport. They only broadcast two matches during the weekend.
Founding teams
A list of the teams that took part in the inaugural SAFA Women's League:[20]
Bold entries are participating in the 2026 season.
| Team | Province |
| Thunderbirds Ladies | Eastern Cape |
| Bloemfontein Celtics Ladies | Free State |
| Tsunami Queens | |
| Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies | Gauteng |
| TUT Ladies | |
| UJ Ladies | |
| Durban Ladies | Kwa-Zulu Natal |
| First Touch | Limpopo |
| Coal City Wizards | Mpumalanga |
| Richmond United | Northern Cape |
| Golden Ladies | North West |
| UWC Ladies | Western Cape |