SEDIBENG.- What was supposed to be the official Emfuleni Local Football Association (ELFA) junior league for the 2024/2025 season matches became friendly matches.

This was after the league postponed all the junior league matches due to the late registrations of some of the teams. The junior teams were supposed to kick off their soccer season over the weekend. Speaking to Sedibeng Ster Sport, ELFA Head Of Development Master Zondo said they had to postpone the kick-off of the league due to the late registration with Qola PSG FC also withdrawing from the league in the last minutes.

All the ELFA streams, namely Evaton, Sebokeng, Vanderbijlpark, Vereeniging, and Vanderbijlpark Streams were supposed to start their league’s campaign but ended up playing unofficial games. However, the games went on as scheduled but the teams were told the results would not be counted or registered.

“This notice simply confirms that tomorrow’s games will no longer be official but it is advisable that the clubs do honour the program. We will send newly generated fixtures from MYSAFA before the end of business day and it will be circulated to your streams. This means the week 1 fixtures will automatically be outstanding then we will resume with week 2 fixtures on May 18-19. The delay from the new teams to send their club’s entry forms and also late affiliation by previous members is the main cause of all this,” said Zondo.

Zondo was confident that this coming weekend all the streams will kick start their new season at various venues in Emfuleni. Vanderbijlpark Stream teams battled it out in friendly matches at Cecil Oldridge Park on Saturday. The day program started at 10:00 until late in the afternoon with Junior Swallows playing against Seven Stars FC.