Masters Football League: Aztec and SAPS take social league honours
Local teams Aztec FC and SAPS FC have been crowned champions of their respective sections of the dual-stream Sol Plaatje Masters Football League (SPMFL) after they played the season’s calendar of sanctioned league matches.
Aztec staked their claim to the A stream title by winning outright 25 league matches out of an allotted 30 fixtures which handed them 76 points.
They had established a clear 12-point lead over nearest rivals and runners-up Phutanang FC. The latter only won 19 games and drew seven fixtures to end up with 64 points and second spot on the A stream rankings.
In the B stream, the SAPS team is making its maiden entry to the Sol Plaatje Masters association’s honours table. However, the SAPS team won 21 matches out of an allotted 28 games in the 15-team member league. Apart from the 21 wins they had notched up three draws and three losses for an overall 66-points placing them on top of the B stream log.
SAPS are closely followed in the B stream by Saints FC who are a considerable 10 points behind them with 56 points. Saints have, however, played a total of 28 matches, recording 16 wins, eight draws and three losses.
The bottom candidates in the B stream, from the lowest ranking, are Five FC who have 16 points, while a nudge above Five are Newtown FC on 17 points and Crusaders FC just above that with 19 points.
Back in the A stream, with the points gap between leaders Aztec and the runners-up Phutanang FC a massive 12 points with all games accounted for, all that is left for this section of the league is the medals and awards ceremony.
However, any of the bottom surfer teams of this section such as Force (nine points), Zulu Sweepers FC (17) and Chippa Masters (19) will likely spend the festive break in limbo as luckless members of the amateur ranks.
Aztec players, supporters and fans are probably likely to brief the party organiser about their celebration plans.
SPMFL administrator Zon Flatela signed off on the league records and remarked that no protests had been lodged in the course of executing the association’s mandate nor were there pending disciplinary matters.
The league will host the play-offs for the overall Masters League championship on a home and away basis on November 20 and 27 November this year, said Flatela.
Flatela explained that in all, the social league staged close to 800 matches in 13 venues over a 12-month long playing season in Kimberley. Most of their venues would at any time stage anything between two and eight matches on a weekend.
He said all affiliate teams will be advised about the association’s awards ceremony and year-end gala.