The 2025/26 Betway Premiership champions, Orlando Pirates, have claimed a title that will sit uneasily in the record books—not because they didn’t deserve it, but because they become the standard-bearers of a league that has forgotten how to attack. This is a coronation built on defensive rigidity and timely grit, not dominance or flair, and it exposes a deeper rot in South African football.
Consider the numbers that should keep coach Jose Riveiro from popping the champagne too freely. With one match remaining, the entire league has averaged barely over two goals per game—the lowest figure in a decade. Pirates themselves, despite winning the title, have scored only 48 goals in 29 matches, a meager 1.66 per game. Compare that to Mamelodi Sundowns’ title-winning sides under Pitso Mosimane, which routinely posted 60-plus goals. Monnapule Saleng has been electric in patches, and Tshegofatso Mabasa’s physical presence earned him 12 league strikes, but the Golden Boot race remains a chaotic, unflattering mess. With only one game left, the leading scorer—Sundowns’ Lucas Ribeiro Costa, on 14 goals—is on pace for the lowest total in Betway Premiership history for a top marksman. That is not a testament to defensive excellence; it is an indictment of sterile forward play across the board. Kaizer Chiefs’ Ashley Du Preez, Cape Town City’s Jaedin Rhodes, and even Pirates’ own Kermit Erasmus have flattered and faded. The league’s attacking DNA has been replaced by cautious conservatism.
This is where the myth of “best of the best” crumbles. Pirates won the title because they were the least dysfunctional at the back—13 clean sheets, a solid spine in Nkosinathi Sibisi and Tapelo Xoki, and goalkeeper Sipho Chaine’s consistency. But they rarely blew opponents away. Their title-clinching match against Richards Bay was a tense 1-0 grind, not a statement of superiority. Sundowns, for all their resources, suffered a mid-season meltdown that Riveiro’s team capitalized on, but the Brazilians still scored more goals (51) than the champions. What does it say about a league when the second-highest scoring team is the one that failed? It says that parity has arrived not through rising competition, but through a collective decline in attacking ambition and efficacy. Coaches like Rhulani Mokwena (now at Wydad) and Steve Komphela have prioritized structure over risk, and the result is a product that rewards safety over spectacle.
The forward-looking verdict is unsparing: unless the Betway Premiership addresses this offensive anemia—through coaching development, rule changes to encourage attacking transitions, or simply a cultural shift in player recruitment—this season will be remembered as the year champions won ugly, and the game lost its soul. Pirates must now prove in the CAF Champions League that they can score against organised African defenses. If they cannot, the title will forever carry an asterisk: champions of the lowest-scoring era, a crown forged not by brilliance, but by survival.