The promotion playoff system has become a safety net for mediocrity, not a measure of genuine success, and the return of Cape Town City FC and Milford FC to the Betway Premiership via this route is less a triumph and more a quiet indictment of how we define progress in South African football. Both clubs emerged from the 2025/26 Motsepe Foundation Championship with enough points to earn their place in the postseason lottery, yet framing these ascents as heroic comebacks ignores a fundamental truth: the playoff structure rewards survival instincts over sustained excellence, trapping clubs in a cycle of instability that masquerades as second chances.
Consider the numbers. Cape Town City’s 2025/26 campaign in the second tier was erratic at best—eight draws in their final fourteen matches, including a limp 1-1 against basement side University of Pretoria that nearly cost them their playoff spot. They finished third in the regular standings, nine points behind champions Sekhukhune United and five adrift of runners-up Baroka FC. Milford FC, meanwhile, sneaked into fourth place with a goal difference of plus two, surviving only because leaders collapsed in the closing weeks. Neither club dominated their division. Neither displayed the tactical consistency or squad depth that suggests they belong in the top flight. Yet because the Betway Premiership’s convoluted playoff format—a mini-league involving the 15th-placed Premiership side and two lower-league survivors—offers a narrow staircase back up, these clubs are now being hailed as resilient. They are not resilient; they are fortunate. The system punishes the 16th-placed team (which goes down directly) while gifting the third- and fourth-place Championship sides a dice roll against a wounded top-flight club. That is not meritocracy; it is a participation ribbon with a commercial broadcast slot.
The real damage is hidden in the long-term cycle. Cape Town City’s last three promotions have all come via the playoffs, and each time they have spent the following season fighting relegation. Their CEO has admitted the club lacks the financial muscle to retool after a summer of uncertainty, and the result is a revolving door of loanees and short-term fixes. Milford’s manager, Thabo Senong, will now face the same impossible equation: either invest heavily for a promotion that might be a one-year fling, or rely on the same squad that struggled to impose itself in the second tier. Meanwhile, a club like Richards Bay FC—which finished 15th in the Premiership and will now face these playoff survivors—has already spent months preparing for this exact scenario. The system rewards the team that hangs around the relegation zone and punishes the upstarts who dare to push for a permanent place. This is not a pathway to growth; it is a treadmill designed to keep the bottom of the pyramid churning for television revenue.
Here is the verdict: unless the Betway Premiership scraps the promotion playoff format—or at minimum caps it to only the second-place Championship finisher—clubs like Cape Town City and Milford will continue to treat the top flight as a temporary rental, not a home. Expect both to be below the relegation line by December 2026, with one likely returning to the Championship by May 2027. The feel-good headlines will fade; the structural rot will remain. Stop calling it a comeback. It’s a cycle.