3 October 2017 – The 2017 / 18 ABC Motsepe league has kicked off in all provinces. This is the first time that MYSAFA.net, SAFA’s centralized player registration and competition system has been used for to register and verify players for a national league.

The following information has been provided by MYSAFA:

  • Average Age – 23 years, 11 months and 22 days
  • Youngest Player – 15 years, 11 months and 21 days
  • Oldest Player – 40 years, 3 months and 26 days

Age by Province

The Eastern Cape is the oldest province in the league with an average player age of 25.5 years while Limpopo is the youngest province in the league with an average age of 23.3 years.

Month of birth

Almost 10% of the 2017 ABC Motesepe League players are born in January, making it the most common month for birthdays. Only 7% of players share their birthdays in November.

53% of the players were born in the first 6 months of the year while 27% are born between January and June.

This seems to support a number international studies that have found a link between being born near to the start of the school year (January in South Africa) and a person’s chances of becoming an athlete. This link is believed to be the result of older and more developed children having an advantage over younger less developed children at school sporting levels.