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Premier Soccer League Chairman Dr Irvin Khoza made special mention of league champions Mamelodi Sundowns in his virtual end-of-the-season PSL awards speech on Sunday, following their record-breaking campaign.
The Brazilians were dominant in securing a seventh consecutive league crown having captured the inaugural African Football League (AFL).
Rulani Mokwena‘s charges also achieved the highest points tally in a single season (73) with second-placed Orlando Pirates off the pace with a 23-points gap between the two sides.
Sundowns fell short with just one match of achieving an unprecedented unbeaten DStv Premiership campaign, on the last day of the season as they fell to a shock 1-0 defeat to Cape Town City.
As such, the 2023/24 Chairman’s Award was bestowed upon the Chloorkop-based outfit for the above-mentioned feats.
“Like the PSL, Mamelodi Sundowns’ list of achievements would help me spend all the time allocated by merely enlisting them numerically,” Khoza said in his speech.
“The unprecedented seven PSL Premiership wins in a row put Mamelodi Sundowns in a league of their own.
“To crown it all, Mamelodi Sundowns is the winner of the inaugural African Football League. This, for a club that had earned the second star for South Africa in the 2016 CAF Champions League, adding to the only star South Africa had to Orlando Pirates in 1995.
“There’s only one word that adequately describes the seven times in a row PSL champions, this word is best captured in a Big Nuz song – Umlilo, Umlilo Masandawana, lo mlilo uya shisa, ungawu lokothi, Uzu nga wothi, u zu nga wothi, u zu nga wothi! (Fire, Fire Soon, this fire is getting hot, don’t let it go, It’s going to burn, it’s going to burn, it’s going to burn!)
“Ladies and gentlemen, congratulations to Mamelodi Sundowns for winning this season’s Chairman’s Award.”
Masandawana have since sailed passage to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup to be staged in the USA.