The promotion/relegation playoffs are a farce, and Cape Town City’s presence in this year’s three-club scramble for a single top-flight place proves the Betway Premiership pyramid is broken at its foundation. This is not a celebration of opportunity; it is a damning indictment of a system that allows a club with three Betway Premiership titles, a top-tier budget, and a roster full of experienced internationals like Khanyiso Mayo and Darren Keet to essentially re-enter the top flight through the back door while genuine NFD aspirants are forced to battle a Premiership giant that never truly belonged in the second division.
The evidence is in the numbers and the names. Cape Town City, relegated after a dismal 2024/25 campaign under Eric Tinkler, entered the NFD with a squad wage bill that dwarfs any true second-tier side. Their aggregate points total during the regular NFD season—where they finished second—was built on a foundation of players who had faced Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates just months earlier. Compare that to Milford FC, a club that clawed its way into the playoffs with a squad of hungry but unproven talents, many of whom had never played in front of 20,000 fans at Athlone Stadium. The gap is not just financial; it is experiential. When City’s midfield general, Thabo Nodada’s successor—call him a seasoned rotational asset like Jaedin Rhodes—dict