Marked for Teboho Khune
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at New Edubiase United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
1‑3 to Inter Allies, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at New Edubiase United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Boujad is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad5 Oct 2026
20 new faces, and New Edubiase United are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at New Edubiase United, and it is a cruel one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bradley Mabunda
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bloemfontein Celtic lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bradley Mabunda will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bloemfontein Celtic the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bloemfontein Celtic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Bloemfontein Celtic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khama Dala is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
4.89 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Match26 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Black Aces came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Sep 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Bechem United, and it could have been more.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.88, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Rodrigo Canario was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Teboho Khune gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Teboho Khune has just signed for New Edubiase United, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Mohamed Boujad falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
Bradley Mabunda damages knee ligaments — 74 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 74 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Dean Phiri runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match9 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Chippa United, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad14 Sep 2026
Dean Phiri in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bloemfontein Celtic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Siyabonga Mothiba has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Bloemfontein Celtic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thamsanqa Dala is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Thamsanqa Jali at his very best
Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Bloemfontein Celtic.
Squad14 Sep 2026
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Match12 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. University of Pretoria defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bradley Mabunda
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bloemfontein Celtic lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Khama Dala runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 42. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bloemfontein Celtic, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer from Tusker for Siyabonga Mothiba was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Match5 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Bloemfontein Celtic are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Evidence Grobler was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Khama Dala falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match5 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Polokwane City leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.