That’s how the tournament grew

“Before it became Philly’s Games, it was just a tournament in 1993, with four teams. I was part of that with Jerry Sikhosana. He stayed at a place called Khalambazo, and there was a field next to his place. So, we used to have a top four to bring people together playing games and everything. It was called Hilburn Miles until we got a sponsor from Coca-Cola and then we expanded to eight teams. We weren’t financially okay at the time. It was during the Apartheid era. People didn’t take soccer seriously and some were saying there is only NSL and PSL. There was a (football) association here in Tembisa with a guy named Isaac Dube – he was the one monitoring all the teams. We asked him that we don’t want to create a league, we want the teams to play a competition during the holidays for people to come together. It was alright, but it was a problem financially until Philly (Mathebula) came in. When he came in, we tried to put everything together, we worked together with Philly. The first proceeds of the gate-takings were donated to a place called Somdaka (an organisation catering for the disabled home in Tembisa). Thereafter, the games continued to grow and we had 16 teams. One thing Philly did was he gave everyone a duty to carry out, he didn’t do things by himself and that is how the tournament grew. What we see today is that the whole South Africa gets to see Tembisa when the Philly’s Games are on, thanks to DStv who sponsor the league. I also love the fact that mamas who are vendors get to sell their stuff at the stadium and make a living. This tournament will continue to grow for years to come.”