South Africa will join an illustrious list of World Cup hosts this summer, and whilst they will start the tournament as outsiders, the country's footballing history is certainly notable.
Football in South Africa can be traced back to the late 19th century and the first recognised club was formed as early as 1879, under the title of Pietermaritzburg County.
The team initially played matches against military selections from the occupying British troops, and came solely from the European immigrant population.
The South African Football Association, later to be known as the FA of South Africa, was set up in 1882, but after exactly 100 years it reconstituted under its first name to represent all of the country's diverse communities.
A national team first represented South Africa when English club Corinthians toured in 1897, 1903 and 1907. England was, in fact, the setting for the first overseas tour by a South African team, Orange Free State Bantu Soccer making the trip there in 1898.
Integration
Racial integration in football has always been a source of pride with the sport helping to break the apartheid barriers, albeit in a slow process.
But the Inter Racial Soccer Board organised representative matches from 1946. In the Natal province, the Indian, African and Coloured FA's competed for the Singh Trophy. In the old Transvaal province, it was the Rev. Sigamoney Trophy.
The South African Soccer Federation, which led the campaign against segregated sport, received its first major boost in Paris in 1955 when the International Olympic Committee acknowledged and recorded that discrimination against "non-white" sportspeople in South Africa existed.
Professional soccer was introduced to South Africa in 1959 with the formation of the National Football League. There were 12 founding members, but none of the clubs are in existence today.
In the first completed season, more than 500,000 spectators watched the 210 league and cup matches and huge crowds continued well in the 1970s.
Professional league
In 1971, the National Professional Soccer League came into existence with Orlando Pirates crowned as the first national champions.
Today the professional league has changed its name to the Premier Soccer League and there are still a sprinkling of clubs from the first league in 1971 playing in the top flight.
The South African Football Association was founded on 8 December 1991, the culmination of a long unity process that was to rid the sport in South Africa of all its past racial division.
Four disparate units came together to form the organisation - the Football Association of South Africa, the South African Soccer Association, the South African Soccer Federation and the South African National Football Association.
A SAFA delegation received a standing ovation at the CAF Congress in Dakar, Senegal a month later, where South Africa were accorded observer status.
World stage
South Africa's FIFA membership was confirmed at their congress in Zurich in June 1992. Membership of the CAF followed automatically and South Africa was back on the world stage.
Within a month, the country hosted their first international match as Cameroon went to play in three matches to celebrate the unity process.
In September 1992, South Africa played their first junior international against Botswana at U-16 level in Lenasia, and to date the country has entered a team in each of FIFA's and the CAF's competitions, from U-17 to senior level and also for the women's team.
In the short space of six years, South Africa achieved remarkable success with qualification for the 1998 World Cup in France, the title of African champions at the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations, which the country hosted, and the runners-up berth in Burkina Faso two years later. They also qualified for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.
From FIFA.com
