Champions: Hope FC win the 2025/26 ABC Motsepe League national title

Hope FC are national champions. In a dramatic end to the third-tier promotion play-offs, the Western Cape newcomers beat the North West University Soccer Institute 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw to lift the 2025/26 ABC Motsepe League national title at Mthatha Stadium.

The final capped a play-off run that included a semi-final win over Northern Cape champions NC Professionals, and a season that began with Hope FC entering the competition as complete newcomers after acquiring the league status of Sea Point Swifts.

The national crown followed the provincial one. Weeks earlier, Hope FC had beaten Diadora FC 1-0 at William Herbert Sports Ground in Wynberg to win the Western Cape title. The victory in Mthatha brought prize money of R1.25 million and, far more importantly, promotion to the Motsepe Foundation Championship, the professional second tier of South African football.

Thousands packed Mthatha Stadium for the final day of the play-offs, with both Hope FC and the North West University Soccer Institute earning their place in the professional ranks.

Chairman and CEO Keagan Buchanan, the former Kaizer Chiefs midfielder who has driven the project from the start, summed up the club's mindset: “We put together a project. We knew that from the beginning. We were not there just to be there. We wanted to compete.”

The title-winning squad was stacked with professional experience. Captain Craig Martin, formerly of Orlando Pirates and Cape Town City, Clayton Daniels, previously with Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United, and forward Ruzaigh Gamildien all played leading roles under head coach Dylan Deane.

Attention now turns to life in the professional game. Read more about the club's promotion and what comes next.