South Africa’s top eight men’s and top eight women’s university football teams are set to go head-to-head in this year’s Varsity Football tournaments.
The men’s tournament will get underway on Wednesday, 8 September and the women’s tournament on Wednesday, 29 September. Both finals are scheduled for Monday, 4 October.
Following the cancellation of last year’s tournaments due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2021 edition of Varsity Football will take place in a bio-bubble in Pretoria. Players, coaches, managers, event organisers and all key stakeholders will stay in what will be known as the Varsity Football Village. This includes the Tuks Stadium, Tuks Athletics Stadium and the Future Africa residence.
The men’s tournament will be split into two bio-bubbles. The first four rounds of matches will take place from 8-15 September, with the second bubble, from 22 September to 4 October, encompassing Rounds 5-7, the semi-finals and the final.
The eight women’s sides will move into the Varsity Football Village on 28 September and each play three group games over a two-day period (29 and 30 September).
‘Following the successful staging of Varsity Netball, these are our second and third Varsity Sports tournaments this year,’ said Varsity Football tournament director Xhanti-Lomzi Nesi. ‘As tournament organisers we are excited that we can create a safe and healthy environment for our country’s best university footballers, both men and women.
‘The theme, as always with Varsity Football, is #Iyachesa, which means to bring the heat, and this year we have to showcase South Africa’s hottest footballers despite not being able to do so with packed stadiums across the country.
‘Strict safety guidelines have been put in place to keep all university teams, tournament organisers, logistics and even the dedicated media personnel who will operate within the Varsity Football Village safe and healthy.
‘We have adopted the two bio-bubbles concept from the FNB Varsity Cup and FNB Varsity Shield tournaments earlier this year. It worked well for everyone, including the student-athletes and the coaches and management members who had to get back to their day jobs.’
An increase in the live coverage of Varsity Football matches has been made possible this year through Varsity Sports’ long-standing, fantastic partnerships with FNB and SuperSport. Twenty-two matches will be broadcast live on SuperSport Variety 4 (channel 209), which is available on all DStv packages, giving South Africa’s football stars of tomorrow the chance to be watched by an even larger audience. Another six matches will be broadcast live on SuperSport Football (channel 205).
In 2019, the NWU Eagles hoisted the men’s trophy for the first time after beating tournament favourites TUT, while the TUT women’s side secured their sixth consecutive title.
NWU will begin the defence of their men’s crown against UJ on 8 September, in the fourth and final game of the day. UKZN and UFS will contest the opening game, followed by Wits vs VUT and a Pretoria derby between 2019 runners-up TUT and Tuks.
Women’s defending champions TUT will hope to continue in 2021 from where they left off in 2019 when taking on Pretoria rivals Tuks in the final match on the opening day of the tournament on 29 September. The tournament will kick off with a clash between Wits and DUT, followed by NWU vs UL and UJ vs UWC (2019 finalists).
2021 Varsity Football fixtures
2021 Varsity Women’s Football fixtures
