Big prize money, live TV coverage for Philly’s Games

The longest-running off-season football tournament in South Africa celebrates 32 uninterrupted years of staging in 2023, with the latest edition of Philly’s Games taking place from the 20th of December to the 2nd of January 2024.

The event, which will be televised on DStv channels 202 and 209, also includes a substantial prize pot of R200 000 and a place in the DStv Ekasi Champion of Champions Tournament for the winners of the senior competition.

In the under-13 age category, the defending champions are MFDN FC, while Destroyers FC put their title in the u17 age division on the line.

Over the years, Philly’s Games has shown steady growth and this year’s tournament will feature well north of a thousand young players, aged from 10 to 17, in action.

The tournament organising committee’s focus is on nurturing young talent, and many of the juniors who play in the event will progress to the senior tournament of Philly’s Games in a few years’ time.

The event’s founder, Philly Mathebula, believes the best is yet to come from the tournament that bears his name. He said it continues to gain in popularity because it is one of the best junior tournaments in South Africa.

“Philly’s Games have our sights set on making our junior tournament the best tournament in the country,” he stated.

The junior event features 16 teams in each of the under-13, under-15 and under-17 age groups. That’s a total of 48 sides and 1 200 players.

They’ll do battle in a knockout format, with matches that finish in draws immediately going to the penalty spot to decide which team advances to the next round.

The organisers have been organising the junior tournament for 16 years –the senior event has been running twice as long – and over the years it has grown in leaps and bounds, attracting not only local talent from Tembisa and its surrounds, but teams from as far afield as Limpopo and Durban.