NFD champions Richards Bay set to be fifth KZN team to compete in top flight
Richards Bay FC ensured their promotion to the DStv Premiership from the GladAfrica Championship on Sunday even though they were held to a 0-0 draw by Cape Town Spurs at home at the King Zwelithini Stadium.
The KwaZulu-Natal club ensured there will be five teams from the province in the top-flight next campaign, so long as Maritzburg United do not find themselves relegated from the Premiership, which mathematically is unlikely.
Royal AM, AmaZulu and Lamontville Golden Arrows are the other three KwaZulu-Natal sides who will compete in the Premiership in 2022/2023.
Richards Bay, who came into the game on 53 points, needed a draw or a win to ensure they won the championship regardless of what happened between second-placed University of Pretoria FC and Hungry Lions at Tuks Stadium.
Tukkies also drew 0-0 to preserve the runners-up spot. If Tuks, who went into the final round on 51 points, had won and Richards Bay lost, the Pretoria team would have been promoted. Sunday’s results saw Richards Bay end on 54 points and Tuks on 52.
The GladAfrica (First Division, or NFD) really did go down to the wire as in the final seconds of both the deciding games the title remained undecided and a goal in either could have swung it one way or the other.
Spurs, the club previously known as Ajax Cape Town, had already survived relegation and finished in third-last place.
Last-placed Jomo Cosmos and second-last TS Sporting had already been mathematically relegated from the GladAfrica to the third-tier ABC Motsepe League ahead of the final round.