FNB Madibaz to be promoted to the FNB Varsity Cup

Should there be no sports allowed for the remainder of 2020, the Varsity Cup board has agreed that – as FNB Madibaz had already achieved an unassailable log points tally on the combined log of 2019 and 2020 – they will be promoted to the FNB Varsity Cup.

The FNB Varsity Cup board as tournament organisers of the FNB Varsity Cup have reiterated their commitment to work with national government and within the guidelines of the relevant health authorities to ensure the safety of players, staff and spectators. 

The Varsity Cup team is in constant communication with all stakeholders, including member universities, sponsors, partners, broadcasters and SARU.

The board took note of the possibility that sport may not be able to take place within the university space in the remaining calendar and academic year of 2020. 

Should there be no sports allowed for the remainder of the 2020 calendar year, the Varsity Cup board has agreed to the following decisions:

The 2020 FNB Varsity Cup, FNB Varsity Shield and FNB Varsity Young Guns tournaments will be declared incomplete. There will be no overall winner awarded in any of the competitions and the trophies will remain with the 2019 winners.

As FNB Madibaz had already achieved an unassailable log points tally on the combined log of 2019 and 2020, they will be promoted to the FNB Varsity Cup, in line with the current Varsity Cup bye-laws which states that “The team that ends top of the Varsity Shield Log in 2020, based on the combined log of 2019/2020, will be automatically promoted to the Varsity Cup for the 2021 season” (Bylaw 6.1.1).

There will be no team relegated from the FNB Varsity Cup Competition and no promotion relegation match between the FNB Varsity Cup and FNB Varsity Shield Competitions. There will also be no promotion relegation match between the bottom FNB Varsity Shield team and the USSA contender. Therefore, there will be 10 teams in the FNB Varsity Cup for 2021. 

The university, other than the member universities currently participating in the FNB Varsity Cup and FNB Varsity Shield, who is ranked highest at USSA, at the sole discretion of the USSA Executive Committee, will be automatically promoted to the FNB Varsity Shield for the 2021 season. This will bring the total number of teams in the FNB Varsity Shield to seven (7) teams. 

The new member university must meet all Varsity Cup MOI stipulations. 

Following the 2021 season, the bottom two teams in the FNB Varsity Cup will be automatically relegated to the FNB Varsity Shield and the bottom team in the FNB Varsity Shield will be automatically relegated. This will bring both competitions to eight (8) teams each for the 2022 season and onwards.  

The Varsity Cup board will hold a special general meeting ahead of the next board meeting to vote in the necessary bye-law amendments to allow for the changes that have been agreed to by the board.