1996–97 Premier Soccer League with the crowd being instigated by the Celtic fans. This was a rather surprising turn of events as the Celtic fans, while having a reputation for being extremely vocal and passionate, are not known to be unruly. 1996–97 Premier Soccer League The 1996–97 Premier Soccer League, known as the 1996–97 Castle Premiership for sponsorship purposes, was the first season of the newly established top-flight professional football league in South Africa. The league was an 18-team competition established in 1996 by Irvin Khoza, Kaizer Motaung, Raymond Hack and Jomo Sono in conjunction with the South African Football Association and it would
1999–2000 Premier Soccer League record they jointly set with Kaizer Chiefs last season, but unlike the previous season in which the title was decided by goal difference, there was no close title race this season as Sundowns finished comfortably ahead of second placed Orlando Pirates with an 11-point margin. As before, the league was contested by 18 teams, sixteen returning from the 1997–98 season and two newly promoted clubs; the returning African Wanderers and Tembisa Classic. The league continued to run parallel to the European football calendar (August–May) and not run concurrently with the African football calendar (January–December). Mamelodi Sundowns clinched a record third