Association football, or soccer, as it is usually called in South Africa, is the nation's most popular sport followed by rugby union and cricket.

Soccer first arrived in South Africa through colonialism in the late nineteenth century, as the game was popular among British soldiers.

[2] From the earliest days of the sport in South Africa until the end of apartheid, organised soccer was affected by the country's system of racial segregation.

There was a plan to play a tournament held in Argentina, with South Africa and Fulham as guest teams, but it was not carried out.

Some of the rivals were Belgrano A.C., Argentina national team, a Liga Rosarina combined, Estudiantes (BA) and Quilmes.

This was unacceptable to the other members of the Confederation and South Africa were disqualified from the competition, however some sources say that they withdrew voluntarily.

The suspension was lifted in January 1963 after a visit to South Africa by Rous in order to investigate the state of soccer in the country.

The next annual conference of FIFA in October 1964 took place in Tokyo and was attended by a larger contingent of representatives from African and Asian associations and here the suspension of South Africa's membership was re-imposed.

In 1991, when the apartheid system was beginning to be demolished, a new non-racial South African Football Association was formed, and admitted to FIFA.

On 7 July 1992, the South African national team played their first game in two decades, beating Cameroon 1–0.

South Africa qualified for the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, but failed to progress past the group stage both times.

Nelson Mandela Bay Chris Hani Cacadu/Sarah Baartman Amahlathi Joe Gqabi Alfred Nzo O.R.

The Premiership is the current top league in South Africa, with the winner being crowned as the national champion.

At the end of the season the bottom two clubs are relegated, and replaced by two play-off winners from the SAFA Second Division.

At the end of the season the nine league winners enter into a series of play-offs to earn the two promotion places in the National First Division.

The main youth competition is the U19 National League, run along local football association lines.

This league's main focus is to develop young talent at the different group ages in Gauteng province.

The team has also played at three FIFA World Cups including, 1998 in France and 2002 in South Korea and Japan.

The team's Siphiwe Tshabalala was also the first person to score in this World Cup during the opening game against Mexico.

Despite defeating France 2–1 in their final game of the group stage, they failed to progress from the first round of the tournament, becoming the first host nation to do so.

The men's development team is made up mainly of players from South Africa's lower leagues.

The team played at home during the 2010 African Women's Championship, and finished in third place, the third time South Africa has hosted the competition.