Itumeleng Khune Slams Cape Town City After Relegation From PSL

Former Bafana Bafana captain Itumeleng Khune has not held back in his assessment of Cape Town City following their disastrous 2024/25 season, which ended with relegation from South Africa’s top-flight league. The Citizens, once a competitive force in the Premier Soccer League (PSL), failed to win a single match in the promotion/relegation play-offs and will now play in the Motsepe Foundation Championship next season.

Cape Town football fans were left stunned as the city will have no representative in the top division for the 2025/26 campaign. City’s relegation was sealed after a string of poor performances that saw them win just one of their last five Betway Premiership matches and only seven games throughout the entire 28-match regular season.

Their fate was sealed during the play-offs where they faced second-tier sides Casric Stars and Orbit College. Failing to register a single victory in four crucial fixtures, City’s campaign ended with a 1-1 draw against Casric Stars in a dead-rubber final match. Orbit College, meanwhile, secured promotion, joining the elite division for the upcoming season.

Speaking on SABC Sport, Khune delivered a brutal analysis of City’s performance, questioning the club’s mentality and preparation.

“Yeah, I think they proved that they deserve to be relegated,” said the veteran goalkeeper. “I don’t know… They didn’t take the platform seriously. To play four games and not have a single win is so poor from Cape Town City.”

Khune highlighted how City failed to demonstrate the gap in quality that typically exists between PSL teams and those from the lower division.

“They should have shown the standard of the PSL so that any team from the lower division could not match them. But they did match them. So, I think let them go to the Motsepe Championship and redeem themselves, and hopefully we will see them in the PSL next year.”

The decline of Cape Town City leaves Stellenbosch FC as the only Western Cape-based club competing in the top tier for the 2025/26 season. Rumours have already started circulating about City chairman John Comitis potentially looking for a way back into the PSL, possibly through acquiring another club’s status.

As the dust settles, all attention now turns to the upcoming season, with the MTN8 set to kick off proceedings on 1 August.