The 2021/22 DStv Premiership season experienced the least number of goals
South Africa’s top-flight DStv Premiership has just come from its lowest-scoring season in the last 10 seasons. Just 479 goals scored in 240 matches – an average of 1.9 goals per match.
Peter Shalulile, 2021/22 PSL golden boot award winner. Photo: @Masandawana via Twitter.
With the FIFA World Cup underway in Qatar, there has never been a more stark reminder of South Africa’s place in world football. The last time the South African national football team qualified for the tournament was 20-years ago, in 2002. This excludes our automatic qualification in 2010 when we hosted the world cup.
South African football on the world stage is looking bleak at the moment. On the international front, Bafana Bafana, which missed out on the 32-team 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), is currently ranked 67th in the FIFA Men’s Rankings, and is not one of the top 10 national football teams in Africa. Meanwhile the under/20 national football team also recently failed to qualify for the 2023 under/20 Afcon, dashing any hopes that we may have about the next generation changing our fortunes for the better.
And on the club football front, South Africa’s top-flight DStv Premiership has just come from its lowest-scoring season in the last 10 seasons. Just 479 goals scored in 240 matches – an average of 1.9 goals per match.
The highest scoring season during this period was 2015/16 with 562 goals overall, averaging 2,3 goals per match. The total goals scored in 2021/22 also represents one of two seasons with less than 500 goals per season. In the last ten seasons, the last time it was this low was in 2017/18 (490 goals).