Top of the League at New Year: Does It Mean Anything in the PSL?

Counting days since every team played at least one game until the date of this article (18 December), Pirates have spent 37 days at the top of the table, while Sundowns have spent the most – 71 days.

Sundowns are at the top at the start of the year, but what does it mean for the rest of the season? We dug through the history books to see whether it was a blessing or a curse to top the tree at the start of the year.

From 1996, the PSL changed from a January-December calendar to an August-May schedule. Since then, the league has overlapped over two calendar years, from the 1996 & 1997 overlap to 2024 and 2025 overlap today.

The New Year break is not exactly the halfway point in the season, and that is particularly true this season where less than 100 games (out of 240) have been played by the end of December. Yet, it remains a good moment to look back at how teams have fared from their Christmas position to the end of that season since 2010.

60% – Since 2010 the side top of the table at New Year has gone on to win the title on 9 of 15 occasions, or 60% of the time.

Unsurprisingly, Sundowns have found themselves atop the New Year table most of the time (doing so 8 times since 2010, or 53%). The next-best team is Kaizer Chiefs, who have topped at the start of the New Year in four seasons. Amakhosi were top on 1 January in three consecutive years (2013 – 2015), and were last New Year toppers in 2020, just before the pandemic.

Besides these two clubs, SuperSport (2 times) and Wits (once) are the others. Curiously, SuperSport were top the last time Wits won the title, while they also topped in 2010, on their way to becoming champions. Thanks to the approaching World Cup that forced a rescheduling of fixtures, Gavin Hunt’s side hold a record of their own.

47 – 2010 SuperSport won 47 points by New Year’s Day 2010, the most of all teams since 2010.

What happens in the second half of the season?

Sundowns have won seven straight titles since 2016/17, and have entered the New Year at the top of the table in five of them. The only exceptions are 2020 (Chiefs were top) and 2019 (Wits were top). The last two times that Chiefs won the title, they were top on New Year, while Pirates needed to come back when winning their last two titles. In 2011/12, they were as low as fifth on the table on New Year’s Day. Perhaps, not topping the table on New Year will be a blessing in disguise for the Buccaneers.

0 – On all four occasions that Orlando Pirates won the league, they were not top of the table on New Year’s Day.

What about the teams at the bottom?

Magesi FC find themselves at the bottom of the table at the turn of the year. The newly promoted side has already experienced highs and lows this season. From winning the Carling Knockout to the departure of their coach, their first few months in the top flight have been eventful. The bad news for them is that the last two teams that were 16th at the start of the year ended up relegated – Spurs in 2024 and Maritzburg in 2023. But there is hope:

50% – In the last 10 seasons, 50% of teams bottom of the table at the start of the year have survived relegation.