Caption: Harrismith Aces celebrate with a trophy after they won the 2025 Elizabeth de Koker top eight Tournament
Harrismith
By Tladi Moloi
The South African Football Association (Safa) Thabo Mofutsanyana Mens Hollywood Regional League champions will be crowned on Saturday at the newly revamped Platberg stadium in Harrismith.
The 2025/26 championship will be decided via the traditional inter-regional play-offs where the three teams that won their respective streams together with the best runners-up lock horns in a one-day knockout tournament.
Harrismith Aces FC, Juventus FC and Hackette Vultures FC are the winners of the three streams that had a total of eight teams each. Mkambadeli Heroes FC comes in as the best number two.
The draw for the play-offs was conducted on Monday at the regional office in Bethlehem. The big day will kick-off with a battle between Harrismith Aces and Juventus in the first semi-finals at 9:00 before a second semi-final game starts at 12:00 between Mkambadeli Heroes and Vultures.
The winners of the two games will contest for the regional championship and a spot in the ABC Motsepe promotional play-offs in the finale which is scheduled for 15:00.
Heroes and Aces will have a crowd advantage as they are both based in Harrismith. Surely, supporters will come in numbers to push one of their own as they would love to have a representative in the Safa second division.
The winner will lift the trophy and secure a place in this year’s ABC Motsepe promotional league against the winners from other regions within the Free State province.
Aces won Stream A with 28 points in 14 games while Heroes finished as the runners-up with 27 points after the same number of games.
Juventus won Stream B with 30 games with their chasers finishing second on 25 points. Stream C winners were Vultures who secured 25 points followed by Rea Leopards with 23 points.
Heroes then progressed to the inter-regional playoffs as the best runner up to make four teams.
The teams will compete in a knockout format with the winner of the semi-finals advancing to the finale to produce the regional champions.
Tsheliso Ntijane, Regional Executive Officer, Safa Thabo Mofutsanyana said told The Sports Eye, “The draw was made on 27 April. We are very happy to have these matches on Saturday where we will crown our winner on the day. The league was very competitive and the best team won the streams.”
